The first annual “Art in Science Competition” hosted in the Musselman Library was a success! We had nine submissions to the event, with both students and faculty submitting work. The opening night included a range of attending students and faculty from across campus. The pieces were on display on a reference shelf in the library during the end of the semester, and we hope that students were able to see and appreciate the beautiful pieces regardless of whether they understood the science. Each scientist/artist included a short paragraph that helped to explain the science behind their art, helping to “paint” abstract and difficult subjects in a more manageable way.
The competition included prizes for “Best Overall Work”, “Best Student Work”, and “People’s Choice”. We were fortunate to be joined by Prof. Austin Stiegemeier in the Art Department and Prof. Greg Suryn in the Chemistry Department to judge the work from an artistic and scientific perspective.
Some of the artworks submitted for the Art in Science Competition, including those of our winners, are now on display in the gallery on the Science Center 3rd floor.
Judges awarded prizes for “Best Student Work” and “People’s Choice” to Chemistry major Meem Noshin Nawal Khan ’24 noting that “This work stood out in the beauty of the sunflower form that was seen in these clathrate hydrate crystals. We appreciated the careful eye to notice this while looking at a large number of samples with other thoughts that were probably on the scientist’s mind.”
Meem called her photo “Crystal Sunflower”, explaining the image as follows, “Tetrahyrofuran (THF) and water solution is kept at high pressure and low temperature to form clathrate hydrate crystals of THF. THF, the guest molecule, gets trapped in a cage of water and forms crystals. Under the microscope, a sunflower pattern was seen in a number of samples while formation of crystals. The liquid sample started freezing from the edges towards the center of circular sample holder disk, creating a beautiful pattern of sunflower petals.”
Judges awarded the prize for “Best Overall Work” to Professor Luke Thompson of the Chemistry Department, noting, “This work stood out for the simplicity and play between shapes and shades of grey. There was a nice balance to the image that reminded us of some modern art pieces involving geometric shapes. There was also an appreciation for the abstract in helping others to understand the challenges that we face sometimes as scientist.”
Professor Thompson took the photo, entitled “Measuring Small Things” using the College’s Zeiss EM-109 Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) at 80 kV accelerating voltage at 85,000 times magnification. He explained the image as follows: “Measuring small things can be a challenge especially when they are too small to measure using a tape measure or calipers or even a traditional light microscope. This is the realm that electron microscopy is king. This image is of a special grid used to calibrate the measurements of ultra-small things using electron microscopy. In fact, this image is magnified 85,000 times relative to normal. The sphere in the image is 262 nanometers in diameter and the grid pattern is 500 nanometers in width.“
We were excited with the response in the first year of our Art in Science Competition, and are looking to continue increasing the number of submissions this upcoming year based on what we learned. Submissions to the upcoming contest from faculty, staff, students and alumni are welcome. If you have a photo or other artwork you’d like to submit, please visit the contest website for details.
