The annual contest, organized by the Office of Research Advancement, invites members of the campus community to share exceptional images that are connected to their research or scholarly work in some way.

This year, there were nearly 50 entries in two categories: The World Around Us, for images in which the subject is visible to the naked eye; and Visualizing the Unseen, for images captured with the use of optics that extend beyond what the eye can see, such as microscopes, or interpretations of scientific information.

“It was exciting to have representation from students, staff and faculty in this year’s entries,” says Martha Terry, creative services manager in the Office of Research Advancement and coordinator of the competition. “We saw a lot of variety in the types of images that were submitted, too.”

Graduate student Niranjana Dhandapani entered an image titled “Strength of Our Skin” and took home First Place in the Visualizing the Unseen category as well as Best in Show.

Dhandapani’s entry, which looks at first like an abstract sea of red waves, is a microscopic image of proteinaceous collagen fiber bundles within the skin’s dermal layer. They were stained with a fluorescent Picro-sirius dye. “When skin is stretched,” she says, “its biomechanical behavior depends on the overall alignment of these crucial stress-bearing fibers.”

She received a pair of AirPods as her prize.

First Place in The World Around Us category went to Junpeng Lai, a graduate research assistant in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He entered a striking photograph of a spider titled “Spiders Can Use Their Orb-web to Hear.”

Three additional entries were honored as Judge’s Choice Selections:

• Carmela Buono, a graduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences, was recognized for a photograph titled Moss and Mushroom Macro-landscape. The macro image features a bright green, moss-covered log with several light brown mushroom caps in a deciduous forest in the northeastern United States.
• Claire Horn, project director in the Public Archaeology Facility, was honored for an image titled Excavating in Floodplain Silt. Archaeologists typically conduct controlled excavations with set dimensions to more easily compare findings from different locations across a site, she says. This photograph shows work conducted in 2021 on the Susquehanna River floodplain.
• Lynn Terry, a graduate student from the Chemistry Department, was recognized for an image titled Under the Lens: Gold/Nanocellulose Membranes. The image, captured with a confocal Raman microscope, features gold nanoparticle / nanocellulose thin-film membranes in an impressive array of colors.

Images are evaluated based on scientific significance, originality and artistic and visual impact.

This year’s judges were Kirsten Prior, assistant professor of biological sciences; Marcus Newton, photo specialist/digital technician in the Department of Art and Design; and Lorin Miller, a member of the Class of 2022.

The S3IP Center of Excellence and the Division of Research co-sponsor the competition, now in its sixth year. This year’s entries are featured in a video and in an exhibit in the atrium of the Center of Excellence Building.

“We were able to have a reception for the show again this year,” Terry says, “and it was wonderful to have a good turnout for the exhibit and be able to see the entrants talk with each other. Some people told me they think about the competition while they’re doing research, and I’m already looking forward to seeing next year’s entries.”

The contest, organized by the Office of Research Advancement and co-sponsored by the S3IP Center of Excellence, offers an opportunity to share the beauty of science through photographs and images that describe some aspect of research captured visually.

This is the fifth year our office has sponsored the competition and I continue to be impressed by the images submitted,” says Martha Terry, creative services manager and contest organizer. “As the entries come in, it is exciting to see the fields of study represented and the creativity that is exhibited by each entrant. I am pleased that enthusiasm for this competition continues and each year I look forward to the next.”

Images were scored in two categories: The World Around Us, featuring images in which the subject is visible to the naked eye, and Visualizing the Unseen, for images captured with the use of optics that extend beyond what the eye can see.

This year’s judges were Yan Sun, manager, Health Sciences Core Facility; Surinder Kahai, associate professor, School of Management; and Kirk Van Zandbergen, photographer and owner of Van Zandbergen Photography. They evaluated entries based on scientific significance, originality and artistic and visual impact.

An image titled “Blue Flame” by Jessica Fridrich, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, won first place in The World Around Us as well as Best in Show. She will receive a new iPad.

“The early southwest settlers had to cope with many challenges, one of them being water shortages,” Fridrich wrote in a caption that accompanied her entry. “White Pocket, the result of an ancient landslide depicted in the picture during a dramatic sunset, provided this source during the monsoons through natural depressions in sandstone.”

First place in Visualizing the Unseen went to an image titled “Label-Free Imaging of Water in Cartilage Tissue” by doctoral candidate Yuhao Yuan and Fake Lu, assistant professor of biomedical engineering.

“Water has important biological functions in the tissue and organs of living organisms,” they wrote in their caption. “Using a lab-built stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy, the distribution of water (pseudocolor cyan) and cartilage (yellow) in an intact mouse ear tissue can be directly seen at a subcellular level without the use of chemical labeling.”

The two first place images, along with a selection of other entries from the 2020 and 2021 competitions, are on exhibit in the lobby of the Center of Excellence Building at the Innovative Technologies Complex.

Kirk Butler, a doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering, worked with undergraduate Alondra Osorno on the entry that took Best in Show and First Place in the Visualizing the Unseen Category. Here’s how Butler described the image, titled “Migration into Mesenchyme:” “Heart epithelial cells (nuclei in blue), grown from stem cells, migrate outward from a central aggregate mass and transition into fibroblasts. The presence of smooth muscle actin (red) within a pronounced actin cytoskeleton (green) suggests these are contractile myofibroblasts, which play an important role in heart wound repair and fibrosis.”

Butler and Osorno created the image while doing research in the lab of Tracy Hookway, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering.

Jessica Fridrich, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, won First Place in The World Around Us Category for her photograph titled “Visceral.” That means the Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science can claim both winning entries this year.

Here’s how Fridrich described her submission: “White Pocket in Arizona is the result of an ancient landslide. In this photograph, the amorphous formations contrast with a dramatic illumination due to sunlight scattered on smoke from a nearby wildfire.”

Martha Terry, creative services manager in the Office of Research Advancement, coordinated the competition. She notes that advances in imaging technology and tools mean that scientists have an increased ability to generate exciting data as well as to create compelling works of art. This contest offers an opportunity to share the beauty of science through photographs and images that describe some aspect of research captured visually.

“I’m excited and impressed with the vast variety of images this year,” Terry says. “It brings attention to the creativity of our campus research community.”

Images were entered in one of two categories and then evaluated based on scientific significance, originality and artistic and visual impact. In The World Around Us, researchers entered images in which the subject is visible to the naked eye. Visualizing the Unseen includes images captured with the use of optics that extend beyond what the eye can see, such as microscopes and telescopes, or models of scientific phenomena or processes or interpretations of scientific information.

This year’s judges were Jocelyn Bailey, account director, Idea Kraft; Steve Czarnecki, associate director, S3IP; Madhuri Govindaraju, UI designer/developer, University Communications and Marketing; Jake Kerr, undergraduate student; Claire Kovacs, curator of collections and exhibitions, Binghamton University Art Museum; and Alexsa Silva, director of instruction and outreach, Chemistry Department.

All of the entries are featured in this video:

The contest, organized by the Office of Research Advancement, gives people an opportunity to share the beauty of science through photographs and images that describe some aspect of research captured visually.

“I’ve been so impressed by the quality and variety of the submissions to this contest,” says Martha Terry, creative services manager and coordinator of the competition. “It’s always interesting to see the entries as they come in. We have had stunning photos taken during people’s field work, but also amazing images from microscopes. If I had to pick a favorite from last year, it would be Pavel Masek’s Thermal Fly image.”

In 2020, there will be two categories:

• The World Around Us: images in which the subject is visible to the naked eye
• Visualizing the Unseen: images captured with the use of optics that extend beyond what the eye can see, such as microscopes and telescopes, or models of scientific phenomena or processes or interpretations of scientific information

Images will be evaluated based on scientific significance, originality and artistic and visual impact. This year’s judges are Jocelyn Bailey, account director at Idea Kraft; Steve Czarnecki, associate director of S3IP; Madhuri Govindaraju, UI designer/developer in University Communications and Marketing; undergraduate Jake Kerr; Claire Kovacs, curator of collections and exhibitions for the Binghamton University Art Museum; and Alexsa Silva, director of instruction and outreach in the Chemistry Department.

This year’s top prize will be a new iPad.

Entries, due Feb. 24, must have been created in 2017 or later in connection with research at Binghamton University. Winners will be announced at a reception during Research Days in April. For entry guidelines and more details, visit https://research.binghamton.edu/events/researchdays/artofscience.php.