Miriam Ashley-Ross
Professor of Biology
B.S., Northern Arizona University ’88
Ph.D., University of California, Irvine ’94
008 Winston Hall
(336) 758-5529
rossma@wfu.edu
I’m broadly interested in how animals move, how the nervous system interacts with muscle and bone to produce behavior. We ask more the “how” questions rather than the “why,” although understanding the evolution of characteristics factors in as well. I’ve focused mostly on salamanders and fish, but have also dabbled into tarantulas as well. We use a variety of techniques to address our questions, ranging from anatomy (dissection, clearing and staining, microscopy) through kinematics (high speed video analysis) and physiology (electromyography).
Graduate Students
Morgan Burnette – PhD Candidate
B.S. Northern Arizona University ’07
M.S. Northern Arizona University ’10
Christine Vega – PhD Candidate
B.A. Bucknell University ’11
I am broadly interested in animal behavior and using biomechanics and morphology to understand how these behaviors are performed. My dissertation research is focused on aspects of terrestrial salamander locomotion.
Noah Bressman – PhD Student
B.S. Cornell University ’16
I am extremely passionate about fish; fishing for them, writing about them, or turning them into art when I’m not researching fish. My research focuses on studying the behaviors, locomotion, and navigation of fishes in a terrestrial environment. You can follow my progress on Twitter and Instagram (@NoahwithFish).
Francesca Giammona – PhD Student
B.S. Cornell University ’16
I am interested in the comparative biomechanics of movement in fishes. Currently, I am studying how terrestrial jumping performance in killifishes scales with age, and how substrate differences affect jumping performance in amphibious fishes.
Mary Caroline Regan – Master’s Student
B.S. Wake Forest University ’17
I like sharks and rays and have begun to focus on studying the biomechanics and ecological roles of them. I look at the ontogenetic development of tails in reef sharks, check out my research on shark tail morphology.
Lab Alumni