A diverse and fascinating series of images were unveiled as the winners of the Research Images as Art / Art Images as Research competition for 2015/16, run by the UCL Doctoral School.

The prize-giving ceremony, which took place on Tuesday 8 December, saw ‘Red poppies in a mouse brain’ – an unexpectedly-appealing image of a mouse brain by research student Rosellina Guarascio (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) named the overall winner, receiving a prize of £400.

Professor David Bogle, Head of UCL Doctoral School and Chair for the competition said: “The committee was incredibly impressed by the quality and range of the many striking and beautiful images. It was another very difficult year for judging The unanimous verdict for the winning image was because of the sheer beauty of the image and the way it reminded us of so many paintings while giving a three dimensional impression. And yet it was all about a mouse brain. Fabulous”.

Six runners-up, each awarded a prize of £200, were named as follows:

  • Dr Sarah Crafter (UCL Institute of Education) ‘The Pensive Lion’
  • Mr Ewan Shilland (UCL Geography) ‘Beads on Weeds’
  • Mr Simone Sala (UCL Physics & Astronomy) ‘X-ray beam mode decomposition’
  • Mr Yao Lu (UCL Chemistry) ‘Wonderland of water’
  • Dr Philip Pogge Von Strandmann (UCL Earth Sciences) ‘Growth from chaos’
  • Mr Haibo Xia (UCL Bartlett School of Architecture) ‘Frozen Motion’

Three further images also received an ‘honourable mention’ - Mr Kealan Fallon (UCL Chemistry) ‘Indigo: From Jeans to Solar Energy’; Mr Fergus Knox (UCL Bartlett School of Architecture) ‘Alta Vista, Densifying the Sunset’; Ms Lucia Noor Melita (UCL Eastman Dental Institute) ‘Canvas Pattern’.

The 100 best images submitted have been exhibited this week and visitors were able to vote for the ‘People’s Choice Prize’, to be announced in due course.

The competition, which takes place every year, was open to all UCL graduate students, and academic staff, either science or arts based. Entrants were invited to submit images associated with their research which have aesthetic appeal.

- See more at: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1215/091215-Research-Images-Competition#sthash.HoyDIlfs.dpuf