Inside...

• Meeting Scene - News and Highlights
• Published Proceedings Papers
• Outstanding Symposium Papers
• Technical Symposia (Program)
• Special Events
• Exhibitors
• Awards
• Tutorial Sessions

• Subscribe to MRS Meeting Scene newsletter
• Publish a Proceedings Paper
• Suggest or Organize an MRS Symposium

• Home
• Meetings
• MRS Meeting Archives
• 2006 Spring Meeting

Science as Art Competition

Visualization methods provide an important tool in materials science for the analysis and presentation of scientific work.  Images can often convey information in a way that tables of data or equations cannot match.  Occasionally, scientific images transcend their role as a medium for transmitting information, and contain the aesthetic qualities that transform them into objects of beauty and art.

As a special feature of the 2006 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco, we conducted the second annual "Science as Art" competition.  The competition was open to all meeting attendees, with entries on display in the Moscone West Convention Center.  There were three $400 awards and three $200 awards presented to the winning entries at the meeting.

First Place Winners ($400)

	Simon R. Hall, University of Bristol, for “Bryozoans”
	Erik D. Spoerke and Bonnie McKenzie, Sandia National Laboratories, for “Toxic Garden”
	James V. Ly, University of Southern California, for “Polypyrrole Conducting Polymer Film”

 

 

Second Place Winners ($200)

	Richard J. Wagner, National Institute of Standards and Technology, for “Calligraphy”
	Brad Boyce and Richard Grant, Sandia National Laboratories, for “4340 Fracture Anaglyph”
	Raj Bhandari, University of Utah, for “Prismatic Folds”

 

Competition Rules:

• Submissions were to be composed of images that complement the “Science” component of the meeting. Images could be obtained by any material imaging technique.  They could also be the result of modeling and simulation, or could be obtained by combining multiple images into one artistic image. Because the focus is on art, the aesthetic rather than the scientific quality of the image was the key element in the competition.  Nevertheless, the images were required to have some connection to materials science.
• All images are to be first submitted electronically as low-resolution jpeg/pdf files.  The meeting chairs then selected a group of finalists from these submissions.  Finalists then brought their entries to the Spring Meeting ready for judging and general display.
• Format: All images were to have a short description of the technique used, the object that was imaged and any special conditions.  
• Three sets of judges – the Meeting Chairs, a committee of symposium organizers, and meeting attendees – independently determined first and second selections.  Three first-selection "Science as Art" works were awarded $400 prizes by the conference chairs.  Three second prizes of $200 each were also awarded.