Juvenile star is image of the year

Evident’s IOTY Award began in 2017 as the Olympus Image of the Year European Life Science Light Microscopy Award with the aim to celebrate the artistic and scientific value of the technique.

Formery commented. “Two years ago, I won an honourable mention from IOTY. Winning the global award feels like an incredible achievement and shows I made progress.

“I work with marine invertebrates, in particular echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins and their kind). They are beautiful animals, with a fascinating and aesthetically pleasing fivefold symmetry that is unlike anything else in the animal kingdom.” 

The small sample, about 1 cm wide, was labelled with an antibody against acetylated tubulin after optical clearing and captured using a color-coded Z-projection. Formery said he chose the subject to showcase the beauty of science in the oceans.

“I’m happy that taking images of them helps communicate how much beauty we have in our oceans, and why it is important to know more about them and protect them.” 

For winning the grand prize, Formery will receive an Olympus SZX7 stereo microscope with a DP23 digital camera.

At the event India’s Shyam Rathod won the new dedicated category for materials science and engineering images for his entry showing the crystal of a wart treatment medicine.

Regional winners were Javier Ruperez (Spain) for EMEA, Igor Siwanowicz (USA) for the Americas and Jiao Li (China) for Asia-Pacific. The winners were selected from 640 images submitted from 38 countries around the world. 

 “Each year, we receive an array of microscope images that masterfully blend art and science. This year’s new materials science and engineering category adds another dimension to our imaging contest, bringing attention to the beauty of samples in all aspects of science.” said Satoshi Nakamura, Vice President of Global Marketing at Evident.