Stan Braude

Professor of the Practice in Biology

“My undergrad work-study job was in the animal rooms in my biology department where I took care of rats, hamsters, salamanders, and alligators. That was pretty fun. At the time, I still thought I was still going to be a vet. But it was a lot more fun staying in school than leaving it. So now my mom thinks I’m still in school. She doesn’t quite get that I have a job.”

Stan’s research and teaching career spans four decades of inquiry into the social behavior of animals such as naked mole rats, dogs, and dragonflies. He is currently in Tanzania studying naked mole rats – not unusual for a man who conducted research in Kenya every year for 20 years. But perhaps for someone who grew up in Chicago and went to summer camp in Wisconsin.

“I lived for those eights weeks of summer camp. I brought a snapping turtle home from camp one summer and I’m just amazed my mom let me keep it. This was the best fed snapping turtle – it ate steak.”

Tyson has been a valuable resource for Stan’s teaching over the past six or seven years. He currently teaches a course in wilderness medicine here at the field site. Back on campus he teaches courses in anatomy, trees, dog breeds, and more. His love of all things biology taught me a bit about the serviceberries and the pawpaws that grow in the little area surrounding our spot on the stairs of the back deck at Tyson’s Living Learning Center. I could only imagine the wealth of knowledge a course with him would bring.

“I subversively let my undergrads know that I got my first dog before I had moved out of the dorms. I kept her hidden for a while. None of them have taken that as a hint as far as I know.”

Stan works tirelessly to get students into the outdoors and to Tyson. Learn more about his work here and see the results of his mentoring in the WashU Trees project.