RAY TROLL My fish filled life, and how I became an accidental science communicator Bio Ray Troll will share the twists and turns of his unique career as an artist and educator. Ray moved to the Pacific Northwest in the late 1970’s and eventually on to Alaska with a couple of art degrees in his back pocket and a lifelong love of natural history. Settling in the rainswept, coastal town of Ketchikan, he began producing offbeat fish-inspired T-shirts that have gained him a global audience with anglers, cannery workers, commercial fishers and scientists around the world. He draws his inspiration from extensive field work and the latest scientific discoveries, bringing a street-smart sensibility to the worlds of ichthyology and paleontology. Ray earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas in 1977 and an MFA in studio arts from Washington State University in 1981. Ray’s unique blend of art and science evolved into exhibits that have travelled across the United States since 1995, including venues such as the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Anchorage Museum, the Alaska Sealife Center, Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, among others. He now has another touring show based on his book Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway with Dr. Kirk Johnson. He has co- authored and illustrated 10 books including a collection of his piscine inspired humor called “Something Fishy This Way Comes”. He is also an avid musician on the side and has released four albums with his band the Ratfish Wranglers. In 2007, Ray was awarded a gold medal for distinction in the natural history arts by the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and in 2006, received the Alaska Governor’s award for the arts. In 2011, Ray and Kirk Johnson were jointly awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship to support their ambitious book project, “The Eternal Coastline: the Best of the Fossil West from Baja to Barrow.” Ray has appeared on the Discovery Channel, lectured at Cornell, Harvard, and Yale, shown work at the Smithsonian and has been honored by the naming of a species of ratfish, Hydrolagus trolli , and a genus of extinct herring, Trollichthys . In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the University of Alaska Southeast.
Alaska Marine Science Symposium 2023 6
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