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Brad Smith

Professor

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Brad Smith, wearing dark framed glasses, a shirt and sweater

Biography

Curriculum Vitae
  • PhD, Anatomy - Developmental Biology, Duke University
  • MA, Medical Illustration, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
  • BUS, Art/Biology, University of Utah

Brad Smith, visual artist/designer/imaging researcher, explores the intersection of life sciences and image-making at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan. Smith was Adjunct Professor of Radiology at Michigan from 2010 -2020. His creative work joins science and art, with a focus on biotechnology and its impact on society’s understanding of the social, ethical, and political status of biological subjects. His research explores visualization methods for the study of cardiovascular development and has established protocols for Magnetic Resonance Microscopy study of development. He creates animations and graphics demonstrating developmental biology for museums and documentary film companies, including National Geographic, BBC, Nova, and the Discovery Channels.

More recently, his Greenfield project includes the reseeding of 5,000 sq. ft of suburban lawn with an experimental field of grasses and plants native to the midwestern plains of North America. It deliberates the culling of non-native, invasive, but naturalized species from the evolving meadow vs. allowing them to compete with the natives insinuated into this reformation attempt. Part of the project includes photomicrosopic and macroscopic documentation of the explanted and volunteer arrivals to the field, to portray the array of life striving to make a home in this newly disturbed ground.

Prior to joining the University of Michigan faculty, Smith was an assistant research professor in the Department of Radiology at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. There, he initiated a major NIH-funded project to study developmental biology with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). At Duke, Smith created innovative visualization methods to study cardiovascular development and established globally adapted protocols for MRI studies of embryos using novel imaging contrast agents. His research has been published in journals such as The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Developmental Biology, and Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and popular media such as Scientific American. He has served as principal investigator on major NIH and state-supported projects.

At the Stamps School, Smith’s academic administrative work connects visual creative practices with practices in the sciences, humanities, and professional schools. As Associate Dean for Graduate Education of the Stamps School from 2004 to 2013, Smith led the implementation of an interdisciplinary Masters of Fine Arts curriculum to engage the creative work of artists and designers with work from disciplines such as the life sciences, sociology, education, law, ecology, politics, business, and other fields. Prior to that he served as director of the graduate program in Biomedical Illustration at Michigan.

Smith has also taught classes in visualization and visual culture in the School of Medicine at Nanjing University (2013-14) during a sabbatical leave from Michigan.

News

Verbascum Freefall 01 Web Size

Brad Smith’s “Greenfield” project featured as cover story on MQR Mixtape
UJE students group

2019 Undergraduate Juried Exhibition Award Winners
Imagining Biologies title

Imagin(in)g Biologies
De menezes title

Bio-Art Illumination: Marta de Menezes Visits Stamps
Campus view fall

Brad Smith: University of Utah Distinguished Alumni Award

Work

Dried plant material darting across a blue field. Brad Smith: Greenfield 01 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 01
Dried plant material falling through a blue field. Brad Smith: Greenfield 02 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 02
Off-centered flower on blue field. Brad Smith: Greenfield 03 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 03
Angry dissected flower bud - red against green. Brad Smith: Greenfield 04 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 04
Yellow flower bud opening its big mouth - small red eyes. Brad Smith: Greenfield 05 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 05
Upright, backlit flower on fire. Brad Smith: Greenfield 06 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 06
Inside an opened flower bud - seeds exposed. Brad Smith: Greenfield 07 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 07
Desiccating flower head - balding. Brad Smith: Greenfield 08 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 08
Frothing seed head opening up. Brad Smith: Greenfield 09 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 09
Backlit seeds developing within the bud. Brad Smith: Greenfield 10 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 10
Starbursts of seed heads on green background. Brad Smith: Greenfield 11 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 11
Opening bud wrapped in prickly yellow fingers. Brad Smith: Greenfield 12 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 12
Silhouetted ghost of flower head with lit up green basil leaves. Brad Smith: Greenfield 13 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 13
Flaming red and purple flower crown with green collar on red background. Brad Smith: Greenfield 14 Faculty Brad Smith: Greenfield 14
Closeup of head of human embryo. Brad Smith: Stage 20 Human Embryo Faculty Brad Smith: Stage 20 Human Embryo
Whole human embryo optical image plus a cut-away view of an MRI image of the same embryo. Brad Smith: Optical and MRI Embryo Faculty Brad Smith: Optical and MRI Embryo
8 rotated views of a human embryo based on MRI. Brad Smith: Embryo Rosette Faculty Brad Smith: Embryo Rosette
Transparent views of human embryo data stacked into vertical, totem-like columns. Brad Smith: Totem 11525 Faculty Brad Smith: Totem 11525
Heptagonal, 8 foot tall series of human embryo MRI images. Brad Smith: Antecedent Faculty Brad Smith: Antecedent
Human embryo MRI data displayed to emphasize pattern, texture, and abstraction of data. Brad Smith: Hox_Voxels_01 Faculty Brad Smith: Hox_Voxels_01
7 rows of MRI image data from human embryos, printed in color. Brad Smith: Human Embryo Timeline Faculty Brad Smith: Human Embryo Timeline
8 15-foot tall columns of human embryo, reformatted MRI data, displayed on a gallery exterior window. Brad Smith: Totems on Glass Faculty Brad Smith: Totems on Glass
Darkened video studio room with participants sitting on floor with 40-foot wide video screen displaying animation of human embryo MRI horizontal totems. Brad Smith: Human Embryo Horizontal Timeline Faculty Brad Smith: Human Embryo Horizontal Timeline
Stick figure depiction of subatomic particles. Brad Smith: Quarks and Gluons Faculty Brad Smith: Quarks and Gluons
Digital painting of lungs, ribs, airways, and blood vessels. Brad Smith: Pulmonary Structures Faculty Brad Smith: Pulmonary Structures
Four images of the lower back showing before and after surgical repairs to spinal injury. Brad Smith: Spinal Repairs Faculty Brad Smith: Spinal Repairs
Colorized MRI data spread horizontally across a white background. Brad Smith: Hox_Voxels_02 Faculty Brad Smith: Hox_Voxels_02
Human embryo MRI data splayed horizontally across a blue background. Brad Smith: Time and Spatial Swapping Faculty Brad Smith: Time and Spatial Swapping
MRI image of mouse heart and blood vessels colorized green and distorted to appear much larger than reality. Brad Smith: Vascularity Faculty Brad Smith: Vascularity