annual report 2011 - Office for Research - Northwestern University

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Contest submissions come from Northwestern faculty,
sta�, and students working in disciplines ranging
from genetics to engineering. Images must originate
from a Northwestern research project and cannot
be fundamentally altered from their original form. In
essence, the submitted images represent both scienti�c
data and art.
An interdisciplinary panel of local artists, scientists, and
community leaders evaluates each image for originality,
aesthetics, and composition. The top �ve winners
receive cash prizes.
“This contest brings together art and science in a
truly educational way,” says Mike Kennedy, director of
Science in Society. “Not only are the images themselves
beautiful, but the science behind them is equally
compelling.”
24 Annual Report 2011 | Excellence in Research
1
As part of its outreach
mission, Science in Society
organizes an annual
scientific images contest
for researchers across the
Northwestern community.
“Capturing the Beauty of
Science” started in 2010 as
a visually engaging way to
share the beauty and societal
impact of basic research with
public audiences.
In addition to being available on the Science in Society
website, an exhibit of winning images has traveled to
the Evanston Public Library, Evanston’s Noyes Cultural
Arts Center, Chicago’s Navy Pier, and Skokie’s West�eld
Old Orchard mall.
FIRST PLACE (�gure 1): Andrew Koltonow, graduate
student in the materials science and engineering
laboratories of Jiaxing Huan and Samuel Stupp.
These clusters of zinc oxide nanoparticles help
engineers design new materials for organic solar cells.
They are used in a coating that allows electric current to
�ow only in the correct direction, blocking unintended
leakage and allowing researchers to study the energy-
harvesting material more reliably. Clusters at lower
left formed more slowly than the rest, producing the
large, spindly crystals. Variations in color relate to the
thickness of the clusters.