Spectacular photographs, provocative videos and intimate stories shed new light on contemporary research.

The jury for this year’s SNSF Scientific Image Competition has awarded four first prizes and seven distinctions.
The prize in the “Women and men of science” category went to a portrait by Kaan Mika (Benton lab), a PhD student at the University of Lausanne, which is a “clear challenge to the usual representation of scientists in their lab”.

KM: “I enjoy sharing the beauty of science and making it accessible to the public through photography”, says winner Kaan Mika, a biologist and self-taught photographer. “I started doing portraits of my colleagues, not only to highlight the human aspect of research but also to give them a chance to explain what they’re actually doing in the lab.”

All the entries to the competition are available in an online gallery on Flickr. They can be used for non-commercial purposes and by the media provided the author is attributed (Creative Commons licence). The images will be on display at the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography in 2021, as the 2020 edition has been postponed due to the efforts to combat the coronavirus. In the meantime, the prizewinning works will be exhibited by the Eye on Science association at the Zurich Film Festival from 24 September to 4 October 2020. The award ceremony will also be held there.

Full article: http://www.snf.ch/en/researchinFocus/newsroom/Pages/news-200428-press-release-imaging-science.aspx

Featured top right: a picture of N.Voisin when doing her PhD studies in A. Reymond’s lab (CIG)