The submission period for the 2024 Art of Science Contest has been EXTENDED to May 3, 2024.
Discovering Beauty in Scientific Exploration
The Art of Science contest celebrates the aesthetic side of scientific research. It invites UC San Diego students, faculty, and researchers to submit original works stemming from their scientific inquiries. These submissions are more than just images; they are gateways to understanding the wonders of science.
Who Can Participate?
Undergraduates: Your submission can be based on research conducted during your coursework, in a laboratory, or as part of a formal research project.
Graduate Students, Postdocs, Faculty and Project Scientists: Your submission should showcase original research outputs from work conducted at or affiliated with UC San Diego.
Photographs, microscope images, illustrations, visual depictions of complex datasets, the result of modeling and simulation, combined images, and creative representations of your work. Images may be modified to enhance their aesthetic, such as combining multiple images into one artistic work.
- For instance, those whose work is highly theoretical or conceptually challenging may wish to design a novel visual metaphor to make it more accessible.
- Photographs may be of instrumentation, apparati, devices or other objects used in your scientific investigation.
- Photographs of original art or three-dimensional physical models or representations are also eligible as long as they depict your original science or mathematics research.
How to Participate?
Submit the following via the Art of Science 2024 submission portal by 11:59 p.m. PT on Friday, May 3, 2024.
- An image of your research in one of the accepted file formats: jpg, gif, tif, or png
- Include a title, a one-line caption that tantalizes audiences, inspiring them to learn more about the research and communicates the science in clear, concise language that is accessible to non-scientists, and a description.
- Image minimum width and height: 2160 px x 2160 px
- Images cannot contain any personally identifiable information.
- UC San Diego and UC San Diego affiliated undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral and faculty researchers are eligible to participate.
- One submission per participant or team.
Prizes and Recognition
Each winning image in the four participant categories (undergraduate, graduate, postdoc and faculty) will receive a cash prize of $75. There is also an open voting category where the winning image is chosen by members of our Triton community and the public. All winning images will be printed and displayed in the Exhibition Gallery in Geisel Library in fall 2024 and exhibited in Spotlight, the Library’s digital exhibit platform. All submissions will be preserved in the Library’s Digital Collections repository.
More Information
For additional information and submission guidelines, visit lib.ucsd.edu/artofscience.
Visit exhibits.ucsd.edu/starlight/artofscience to view images from past contests.
Image Credits
Top Row (left to right):
- “Drifting World through the Scripps Plankton Camera” by Pichaya Lertvilai (2021 Judges’ Award, Graduate Student Participant Category)
- “Perovskite Crystals with a Gradient Composition” by Sheng Xu (2022 Honorable Mention)
- “Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells” by Keunyoung Kim (2021 Judges’ Award, Faculty/Scientist Participant Category)
- “Bigeye Octopus Suckers” by Adi Khen (2021 Open Voting Winner)
Bottom Row (left to right):
- “Red, White & Blue” by Partha Ray (2021 Honorable Mention)
- “Whirlwind of neurites extending from fluorescent neurons in cultured explants of embryonic mouse brain tissue” by Jess Du (2021 Honorable Mention)
- “Jellyfish” by Maggie Yu (2022 Judges’ Award, Undergraduate Participant Category)
- “Human Spinal Cord Neurosphere” by Michael Weible (2023 Winner)
Contact:
Abigail Pennington
apennington@ucsd.edu