Joseph Garner

Joseph Garner, D.Phil., Associate Professor, received his doctoral degree from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, Great Britain, where he studied the developmental neuroethology of stereotypies in captive animals (1995-1999). His postdoctoral research in animal behavior and well-being was undertaken at UC Davis (1999-2004). He served as an Assistant (2004-2010) and an Associate (2010-2011) Professor of animal behavior and well-being in the Department of Animal Sciences at Purdue University, where he also held a courtesy appointment in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (2009-2011). Dr. Garner joined the Department of Comparative Medicine at Stanford in 2011. Here he runs Stanford’s Technique Refinement and Innovation Lab, which provides a wide range of support services to assist researchers on campus maximize the efficiency of their work and the well-being of the animals involved.
Dr. Garner’s research interests include the development of refined methods in behavioral research; abnormal behaviors in animals (including barbering and ulcerative dermatitis) and their relationships with abnormal behaviors in humans; mouse well-being and enrichment; and the scientific impact of well-being problems in lab animals. The goal of this work is to understand why most drugs (and other basic science findings) fail to translate into human outcomes, and how changes in animal research can help resolve this problem.
Recognition of Dr. Garner’s work includes awards from the National Center for the 3Rs (UK), the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, the Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association, and the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare.
Dr. Garner serves, or has served, as a council member for the International Society for Applied Ethology, an Editor for Applied Animal Behavior Science, a Special Topics section editor for the Journal of Animal Science, on the AAALAC Board of Trustees, on the SCAW Board of Trustees, on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Trichotillomania Learning Center, the Tourette Association of America, and the Beautiful You MRKH Foundation.