KAUST Students Win Art in Science Photography Competition
The above photograph, which was taken by KAUST Ph.D. students David Castro and David Conchouso, won the NIST and Lab on a Chip-sponsored "Under the Looking Glass: Art from the World of Small Science" 2014 Art in Science Competition.
A photograph of the work done by researchers in KAUST's Electromechanical Microsystems & Polymer Integration Research Lab (EMPIRe), which is led by Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Ian Foulds and is part of the Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences & Engineering (CEMSE) Division, won the "Under the Looking Glass: Art from the World of Small Science" 2014 Art in Science photography competition at the 18th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (MicroTAS 2014). The award was sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the prestigious journal Lab on a Chip.
The 2014 conference was held in San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A. from October 26-30, and was an exciting venue for the latest findings in microfluidic nano, bio and medical research. Over 850 papers were accepted to the 2014 conference, and over 1,100 scientists attended the event.
The paper that included the winning photo was entitled "Real-time agglutination within a microdroplet in a three phase fluidic well for detection of biomarkers" and was written by Dr. Shilpa Sivashankar, KAUST Ph.D. student David Castro, KAUST Research Scientist Ulrich Buttner and Prof. Foulds. It was accepted to MicroTAS 2014.
The winning photograph was taken Castro and fellow KAUST Ph.D. student David Conchouso at CEMSE's Microfluidics Lab, which is led and managed by Buttner. The journal Lab on a Chip will feature the photo on a future cover. The photo was selected on the basis of aesthetic eye appeal, artistic allure and scientific merit.
The photograph is the top view of a rotating 40uL aqueous droplet suspended at the interface between two fluids inside a square cuvette. The droplet contains an assay of functionalized latex beads agglutinating in the presence of human C-reactive protein.
"I was astonished our photograph won the award," said Dr. Sivashankar. "Winning is not everything, but making an effort to win is – and we have been rewarded for the effort we made."
- By Caitlin Clark, KAUST News