The art of science: Olympus launches second global image of the year award

Following the success of the first Global Image of the Year Life Science Light Microscopy Award, Olympus has launched its second annual Global Image of the Year Award to recognize the best in life science imaging. Those interested in participating can enter through Jan. 10, 2021 by uploading up to three images, with a description of the equipment used, at Olympus-LifeScience.com/IOTY. Winners will be selected by a jury panel and announced in March 2021.

Contest details

Prizes include an Olympus SZX7 stereo microscope with a DP27 digital camera for the global winner and an Olympus CX23 upright microscope for the regional winners in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The jury consists of global representatives from both science and the arts, including Wendy Salmon, a light microscopy specialist at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT; Geoff Williams, the manager of the Leduc BioImaging Facility at Brown University; Harini Sreenivasappa, the microscopy facility manager of the Cell Imaging Center at Drexel University; Safa Shehab, a professor at United Arab Emirates University; Siân Culley, a postdoctoral research associate at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at UCL; Stefan Terjung, the operational manager of the Advanced Light Microscopy Facility at EMBL Heidelberg; Xiang Yu, a professor in the School of Life Sciences at Peking University and investigator of the Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research; Graham Wright, the chief technology officer at A*STAR’s Research Support Centre; and Ikuko Koyama-Honda, the project lecturer of the Graduate School and Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo.

All entries will be evaluated based on artistic and visual aspects, scientific impact and microscope proficiency.

About the image of the year (IOTY) award

Olympus’ IOTY Award began in 2017 as the Image of the Year European Life Science Light Microscopy Award with the aim to celebrate both the artistic and scientific value of microscopy images. Today, the competition stays true to this mission by encouraging people across the world to look at scientific images in a new way, appreciate their beauty and share images with others.

More information about the Global Image of the Year Life Science Light Microscopy Award, including jury members’ biographies, last year’s winning images and the full terms and conditions, can be found at Olympus-LifeScience.com/IOTY.