washburn graduated "summa cum laude" from harvard university with a bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1935, followed by a ph.d. in anthropology in 1940. for a time, washburn considered pursuing his doctorate in zoology, and in his first year in graduate school, worked as an assistant with a zoological expedition in southern asia called the asiatic primate expedition. his work as a graduate student in comparative anatomy, comparative psychology, animal locomotion mechanics, and paleontology helped shape in him a multi-disciplinary perspective toward the study of evolutionary origins.