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Dr. Stephen DownsÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America

Emeritus Professor

Faculty 1987-2019

Dr. Stephen Downs grew up in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received his bachelors degree at Augustana College, where he majored in biology and chemistry. He then received his PhD degree in anatomy from the University of Iowa in the lab of Dr. Frank Longo, studying the role of prostaglandins in ovulation in mice. Moving further east to Bar Harbor, Maine, he spent five years in the lab of Dr. John Eppig at the Jackson Laboratory, carrying out postdoctoral work on the role of purine metabolism in mouse oocyte maturation. Dr. Eppig would go on to become perhaps the best known oocyte physiologist in the world. Dr. Downs loved living a stone’s throw from the ocean and on the doorstep of Acadia National park, and both of his children were born in Bar Harbor. 

Dr. Downs joined the Biological Sciences department in 1987. He continued his work with purines and interconnected pathways of energy metabolism, first involving carbohydrates and more recently fatty acids. Along the way, he carved a small research niche in examining how energy metabolism helps regulate meiotic maturation in mammalian oocytes and has thoroughly enjoyed the journey.  It has been a privilege for him to mentor seven graduate students to their PhDs and to provide research experiences in his lab for countless undergraduates. Upon his arrival at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ, Dr. Downs reopened the undergraduate developmental laboratory course that had not been offered for several years.  Dr. Downs also developed an additional undergraduate lab course in anatomy that was taught for the first time in 2011. 

Some of Dr. Downs’ fondest experiences in the field have been with collaborators, including Dr. Henry Leese, one of the world’s foremost authorities on both egg and embryo energy metabolism. Downs and Leese worked together in York, England from 1994-1995. They obtained data that greatly advanced the understanding of mouse oocyte physiology, and Dr. Downs traveled extensively in England, Wales, and Scotland, pursuing a newfound love of castles. 

Outside of science, Dr. Downs enjoys spending time with his granddaughters and his dogs. He loves music and has written many songs, usually of a sacred nature, that he sometimes performs with his brother. He also plays trombone and for many years was a member of the Wauwatosa Community Band and the Wauwatosa Community Jazz Band. He has been working on a novel for several years that he hopes to finish before he lands in that other place. He has a serious addiction to hiking, and the more spectacular the backdrop, the better. He retired from ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ in 2019.