 He worked as a professor in Tartu (Dorpat) for 25 years and also started the anatomy collection of the University of Tartu.In his studies involving the embryonic development of birds and mammals, Rauber is credited with combining comparative embryology and histology with phylogenetic analysis.The eponymous "Rauber's layer" bears his name, being defined as a trophoblastic membrane over the embryonic disk in developing animals.