Office space: Ray Wilhite
Ray Wilhite’s office at Auburn University is a cabinet of curiosities — a place where ancient bones, thank-you notes and a signature Australian cowboy hat all tell the story of a scientist, teacher and mentor whose passion for anatomy and paleontology is matched only by his devotion to students.
For 18 years, Wilhite has served as both anatomy laboratory coordinator for the College of Veterinary Medicine and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Auburn University Museum of Natural History. His dual roles reflect a career spent at the intersection of discovery and education, where the past comes alive for future veterinarians and budding scientists.
One of Wilhite’s most striking teaching tools is a real alligator skull, part of a 10-foot skeleton collected from Rockefeller Refuge in Louisiana. Far from being just a display piece, the skeleton has played a central role in his research, helping him study sauropod dinosaur limb biomechanics for his Ph.D., and serving as a hands-on puzzle for students learning archosaur anatomy.