[2] He then began working for the Carnegie Marine Biological Laboratory in the Dry Tortugas, before joining the Louisiana Department of Conservation in 1931, where he studied the local shrimp fishery.

[2] This was followed by what Burkenroad considered to be his most meaningful position, as a consultant on shrimp fishery to the governments of Panama and Costa Rica.

[2] In the 1960s, Burkenroad and his family (his wife and three children) returned to New Orleans, where he worked in association with Tulane University.

[2] Burkenroad's research interests were unusually broad, including astrophysics, Acheulean hand axes, and Lewis Carroll, as well as several fields of biology.

[2] His most famous carcinological paper was titled "The evolution of the Eucarida (Crustacea, Eumalacostraca), in relation to the fossil record", and was published in 1963.