[citation needed] He served as chairman of the New York University anthropology department before 1980, when he was sent to prison for turning his laboratory into a drug manufacturing operation.
The most significant of his work, which included over 80 journal articles, focused on biochemical genetics and cytogenetics in non-human primates.
He wrote two textbooks: Origins of Man (1966), produced with the assistance of his wife and long-time collaborator Vina Mallowitz Buettner-Janusch, and Physical Anthropology: A Perspective.
Shortly after his wife died in 1977, he was accused of harboring an illegal drug operation in his laboratory, in which his assistants were making LSD and methaqualone.
In 1987, seeking revenge for his drug conviction, Buettner-Janusch anonymously sent poisoned Valentine's Day chocolates to the federal judge for the case, Charles L. Brieant Jr., as well as others.