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Portfolio Noah Bressman

Originally from Chappaqua, New York, I got my bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 2016. Currently, I am a PhD candidate in Miriam Ashley-Ross’ lab at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. If all goes according to plan, I will have passed my defense and have my PhD by the time this is published. My dissertation research at WFU focuses on amphibious fishes. In May, I will be moving to California for a postdoctoral scholar position at Chapman University to study how hagfish slime could be used to safely stop small boat propellers at high speed. When I am not researching, I am most likely fishing or creating biological fish art. My art uses photography, digital image manipulation, and a biochemical technique known as clearing and staining using whole organisms of fish. It involves using a series of chemicals to stain certain tissues certain colors (i.e., staining bone red and staining

Noah Bressman

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cartilage blue), while dissolving other tissues or making them transparent. This technique is great for studying morphology and skeletons, but also creates beautiful images in the process.

Please tell us about your research and how you got into making art. My research is on fish functional morphology, biomechanics, and behavior. I have a special interest in amphibious fishes, studying why they emerge onto land, their morphological and behavioral adaptations for terrestrial locomotion, and their terrestrial orientation. Many of the amphibious fishes that I study are also invasive species, such as snakeheads, walking catfish, and suckermouth armored catfish (plecos). By learning why these invasive species go onto land, how they move around on land, and where they go while on land, I hope to better inform management of these ecologically harmful species. I got into making art completely by accident. It started after I took a fish functional morphology course the summer of 2016 at Friday Harbor Labs on San Juan Island, Washington State. One of the instructors, Adam Summers of the University of Washington, is renowned for his fish