Beauty of cosmic proportions found in microscopic imaging

Evident unveiled the winners of its 5th annual Image of the Year contest, an awards competition that recognizes the world’s best in scientific microscopic imaging. The winners were selected from submissions from 29 countries around the world. For the first time, the competition included a video category to showcase the art of capturing small changes in motion under the microscope.

Global Winner

Igor Siwanowicz of the United States was selected as the global winner for his striking cross-section image of a Cosmic Orange Mexican aster flower that vividly depicts pollen grains maturing inside anthers. To create this image, Siwanowicz embedded isolated florets in agarose, sectioned on a vibratome and stained with Calcofluor White and Congo Red dyes. The sample was dehydrated, cleared and mounted in methyl salicylate.

Siwanowicz chose to image this flower to observe how aster florets are organized before the flower opens. “I was lucky to pick my flower buds at the right stage of development, with the pollen grains almost fully mature but still bound together in a mass,” Siwanowicz explained. “I think this image shows the true beauty of a common flower that most of us take for granted by extending it well beyond what we can see with the naked eye. The beauty of natural form and design is present on very different scales, sometimes almost in a fractal manner—as we continue to zoom in, the form may lose familiarity but also become a new emotional experience.”

In recognition of his grand prize submission, Siwanowicz will receive an Olympus SZX7 stereo microscope with a DP23 digital camera or a set of X Line™ objectives.

Materials Science Winner

Gerd Günther of Germany was selected as the winner of the Image of the Year Award for materials science and engineering images. Günther’s winning image depicts a human hair knotted with a horsehair, created with incident brightfield illumination to generate a shimmering metallic effect. Günther will receive an Olympus SZ61 stereo microscope for his winning image.

Video Winner

The winner of the inaugural Image of the Year Award for video is Zhigang Zheng of China, whose timelapse video of amino acid crystallization captured the beauty of shifting crystal shapes through the use of polarizing mirrors and refractive light. Zheng used a digital camera, tube lens and objective lens to capture his video. He will receive an Olympus CX23 upright microscope or SZ61 stereo microscope for his work.

Regional Winners

Three regional prizes were awarded to Till Stephan (Germany) for EMEA (heart cells), Marko Pende (USA) for the Americas (tissue-cleared ladybug) and Daniel Han (Australia) for Asia-Pacific (diatom arrangement). Each regional winner will receive their choice of an Olympus CX23 upright microscope or SZ61 stereo microscope.

Honorable Mentions

Honorable mentions include Hannah Somers (USA), Raghuram Annadana (India), Laurent Formery (USA), Jianguo Mao (China), Frantisek Bednar (Slovakia), Antonio Segura (Argentina), Momo Xue (China), Sandra Story (USA), Ji Yuan (China), Luigi Olivo Bozzano (Italy), Hana Sehadová (Czech Republic) and Yue Rong Tan (Taiwan).

The contest launched on Feb. 15, 2024, with a call for users to submit their best scientific images through April 30. All entries were evaluated by a third-party jury on the basis of artistic and visual appeal, scientific impact, and microscope proficiency. “As we celebrated our fifth global installment of Image of the Year, we were once again deeply impressed by entries from around the world that succeeded in turning the science of microscopy into stunning works of art,” said Wes Pringle, Evident CEO. “The addition of our new video category further added to the depth of our submissions and to the possibilities explored by our entrants—it was very exciting to experience the wonder of microscopic imagery in motion. We were honored to receive such a large number of exceptional entries from life science and materials science professionals as well as educators, hobbyists and enthusiasts.”

About the EVIDENT Image of the Year Award

Evident’s Image of the Year Award began as the Image of the Year European Life Science Light Microscopy Award with the aim to celebrate both the artistic and scientific value of microscopy images. Today, the competition stays true to this mission by encouraging people around the world to look at scientific images in a new way, appreciate their beauty and share images with others.

About EVIDENT

In 2022, Olympus Corporation spun off its Scientific Solutions Division, including its life science and industrial solutions businesses, to establish a new company called Evident. Although our name is different, our expertise, manufacturing capabilities and commitment to
our customers, which defined us over the past 100 years, remain unchanged.

At Evident, we are guided by the scientific spirit—innovation and exploration are at the heart of what we do. Committed to making people’s lives healthier, safer and more fulfilling, we support our customers with solutions that solve their challenges and advance their work; whether it’s researching medical breakthroughs, inspecting infrastructure, or exposing hidden toxins in consumer products.

Evident’s industrial solutions range from microscopes and videoscopes to nondestructive testing equipment and X-ray analyzers for maintenance, manufacturing and environmental applications. Backed by state-of-the-art technologies, Evident products are widely used for quality control, inspection and measurement.

In life science, Evident empowers scientists and researchers through collaboration and cutting-edge solutions. We’re dedicated to meeting the challenges and supporting the evolving needs of our customers, continuing to advance a comprehensive range of microscopes for pathology, hematology, IVF and other clinical applications as well as for research and education.