Scientific Imaging Competition

Taking place every two years, this exciting international competition is a great opportunity for microscopists from across the world to showcase their skills. It provides a great outlet for those that can capture the breath-taking and engaging beauty of the microscopical world. The Society is always in awe of the quality of submissions across the categories.

The RMS Scientific Imaging Competition 2023 took place as part of mmc2023.

2023 Winners

Particle or Wave? Polymer brush PS-PMMA imaged with tapping AFM-IR at 8.7 µm wavelength A look inside the pyramidal cell of the cerebral cortex What goes up must come down Plastic pollution Peek-a-boo, a snail in the nano-world Intestinal villi of a food-allergic mouse Dimensionality in ovarian cancer A Crystallization Scene of Magnesium Nitrate dissolved in water and ethanol Aquamarine cave

Short Video

1st Prize - Physical Science

Iron diffusing into titanium at 850°C over 24 hours as observed in an SEM with a 60μm view field. The presence of iron alters the crystal structure as it sweeps from left to right. The free surface allows the transformation to occur without constraint and the steps seen are directly related to the underlying crystal planes of the material. Video constructed by imaging every 2 minutes in a TESCAN CLARA using a NewTec FurnaSEM heating stage at the University of Manchester

Video by Albert D. Smith (TESCAN-UK), Jiaqi Xu, Jack Donoghue (University of Manchester)

1st Prize - Life Science

There is a universe of dynamic signals inside plants - when a plant is wounded, long-distance calcium signals are transmitted quickly from the wounded leaf to the others! A young Arabidopsis thaliana seedling expressing a fluorescent calcium reporter allows us to visualize those signals via fluorescence live imaging

Video by Annalisa Bellandi, under the supervision of Christine Faulkner and with the support of John Innes Centre Bioimaging team

Office Contacts

Lucy Ridler

Publications Manager & Executive Journal Editor

Owen Morton

Publications Co-Ordinator & infocus Editor