Congrats to our Image Contest Winners

A big thank you to everyone who submitted an image in the 2019 Image Competition. We are excited to announce the winners. Please vote for these amazing images in the NNCI Image Contest, There’s Plenty of Beauty at the Bottom. Voting will open on October 7th!

Most Stunning

Gill raker of the Japanese medaka

Melissa Chernick, Duke University

This image shows a portion of a gill raker from a Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes), a small fish often used as a research model. Gill rakers are tooth-like structures inside a fish that help capture prey and prevent damage to its gills. The image shows some of the tissue that makes up the gill raker: a taste bud surrounded by pavement cells.

Most Unique Capability

Nanocoined Structures in Diamond

Nichole Miller, Smart Material Solutions, Inc.

This image shows hierarchical features that were milled into diamond using a focused ion beam. This patented process, “Nanocoining,” can seamlessly nanopattern drum molds for roll-to-roll manufacturing hundreds of times faster than competing technologies. This enables nanopatterning that was previously feasible for only small, academic experiments to be applied on the industrial scale. Nanocoining opens the door for nanostructured surfaces with unique optical and wetting properties to be applied to a variety of commercial products including OLEDs, biosensors, wire-grid polarizers, solar panels, and windows.

Most Whimsical

Dust Flower

Michael Valerino, Duke University

Particulate matter (PM) refers to liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere and comes from dust, combustion by-products, exhaust, fires, and even vegetation. When PM deposits on the surface of solar panels, it can reduce energy production by up to 40% resulting in ~10 to 50 billion dollars of annual losses globally. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of particles on the panel surfaces help us to better understand the sources impacting soiling. This piece of dust reminded our group of a flower, seemingly blooming out of an unearthly field. Even at this tiny scale, we can find familiarity.

Submit your Work to CHANL’s Scientific Art Competition

The CHANL Scientific Art Competition provides users an opportunity to showcase scientific data with artistic appeal. The competition is coordinated by CHANL and UNC-MRS (Materials Research Society) through the Department of Applied Physical Sciences (APSc).

Submissions will be posted both online and in the Chapman Hall lobby. Winners will be announced the week of April 7, 2019 at a lunchtime reception on April 12 at noon. There are multiple opportunities to win cash awards.

Submission Guidelines

  • Deadline: April 1, 2019
  • Submission type
    • Pictures, Photographs – digital photographs/microscopy images (TEM, SEM, AFM…)
    • Computer generated graphics (illustrations, models…).
  • Max image size: 15 MB max
  • Dimensions:1024px x 1024px or greater 
  • Resolution: 96 dpi or better
  • File type: .jpg (recommended), .tiff
  • Filename: lastname_firstname.jpg or .tiff
  • Colorization to enhance visual impact is allowed

For more information and to submit your image, please visit the Competition Website.

Scientific Art Competition – Submit your image!

The Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory (CHANL) is hosting its 9th annual Scientific Art Competition! The Scientific Art Competition provides an opportunity to showcase scientific data with artistic appeal. The deadline for submission is March 31, 2017. Submissions should be sent to Dr. Amar Kumbhar (akumbha@gmail.com) along with a submission form.  Anyone can submit to the CHANL scientific art competition, and the work does not need to be produced on CHANL equipment.

This year there will be twelve CASH prizes!
1)  Artist’s Choice: 1st Place: $ 50.00, and 3 finalists: $20.00 each
2)  People’s Choice: 1st Place: $ 50.00, and 3 finalists: $20.00 each
3)  Students’ Choice: 1st Place: $ 50.00, and 3 finalists: $20.00 each

Winners will be announced the week of April 23 at a lunch reception and the CHANL MRS seminar.

Please contact rtnanonetwork@ncsu.edu with questions or concerns.