Stanley Adair Cain (19 June 1902, Deputy, Indiana – 1 April 1995, Santa Cruz, California) was a botanist and pioneer of plant ecology and environmental studies.
In 1950 Samuel Trask Dana appointed him to the Charles Lathrop Pack Professorship of Conservation in the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources.
For the academic year 1955–1956 he was a member of the U.N. Technical Assistance Mission to Brazil, where he collaborated with Dr. G. M. de Oliveira Castro, a specialist in tropical medicine, in preparing their Manual of Vegetation Analysis (1959).
[4][7] The purpose of the U.N. Mission was to study rainforest vegetation in order to provide information for mosquito control in Brazil's efforts to prevent malaria.
In 1941, he published Foundations of Plant Geography, which distilled a large amount of scientific work from varying disciplines into one of the most comprehensive and insightful ecological studies ever written.
Cain, an experienced administrator, worked with Jean Campbell and Jane Likert to create the University of Michigan's Center for Continuing Education of Women.