Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, 1st Place. Sergei Rigin. The work showcases a visual resemblance between polymer structures found in the microworld and human-scale objects like a forest, reflecting nature's ability to replicate its artistic patterns across different scales.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Ana Sapp. The Rio Grande cooter (Pseudemys gorzugi) is a freshwater turtle currently being surveyed along the lower Pecos River drainage in New Mexico. The current research is focused on the distribution of the cooter, as well as collecting toxicological data for all turtle species captured. The Rio Grade cooter is one of the least studied freshwater turtle species in the US and it is range is restricted to the lower Rio Grande watershed.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Alejandro Valdes and Aymee Alvarez. In the photo, the crystals of a pyrrole derivative used as an intermediary in the synthesis of bipolamine I, a natural product with promising antimicrobial activity recently synthetized in the Pierce Group. This intermediate is also being used to attempt the synthesis of curvulamine, which is another natural product, closely related to the bipolamines, which have displayed promising antimicrobial activity as well.Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, 2nd Place. Joshua Morsell. An ionization wave from an atmospheric pressure plasma jet is incident onto a transparent dielectric target with a channel cut into it. Plasma is generated by applying high voltage to helium gas via 500 nanosecond pulses. The resulting surface ionization wave (SIW) is imaged from the bottom of the target by a high speed intensified camera. SIWs have velocities of >10 Km/s and deliver large numbers of reactive species and electrons to the target surface. The goal of this work is to gain a more fundamental understanding of plasma interactions with complex surfaces. The SIW is shown to have a strong dependence on the target electrical properties and channel geometry. The shape of this surface wave is being referred to as a ‘plasma butterfly’ as the portions of the wave escaping the channel resemble wings.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Mohammad Fozlay Rabbani. This shows the high-temperature thermal expansion behavior of thin films and how the strain and stress mismatch of multiple layers turned out to be something beautiful.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Aoi Nakanishi-Hester. In our research, we focus on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) using a mouse model. AD is a condition where memory loss occurs due to the death of brain cells called neurons. There are various factors that can lead to neuron death, and we are particularly interested in studying the role of inflammation in this process. Our aim is to understand how a specific protein called TAK1 (which is a protein kinase involved in inflammatory signaling), contributes to neuron death and subsequent memory loss in AD. To investigate this, we use a technique called primary neuron culture, where we examine cells under a microscope. In the picture, the blue color represents the cell nucleus, the red color represents neurons, and the green color represents astrocytes, another type of brain cell. By studying these cells, we hope to gain insights into the mechanisms underlying neuron death and memory loss in AD.Faculty/Staff Graphics, 1st Place. Radmila Sazdanovic. In spite of its similarities to images of black holes or diffraction patterns of a myoglobin crystal Alexander galaxy 9755329 represents the complex roots of the Alexander polynomials for all 9755329 prime knots up to 17 crossings. Alexander polynomials were invented in the early 20th century in the attempt to distinguish knots and have been an essential tool in knot theory. This image contains more than 123 million points, each of them corresponding to a different root, scattered in the complex plane. Higher density regions are brighter, while the red shading reflects the signature of each knot.
This image is part of a research project joint with P. DÅ‚otko (Poland) and D. Gurnari (Italy) aiming to gain insight on open questions in knot theory by means of data analysis and visualization techniques from applied algebraic topology (Topological Data Analysis) that gap between theoretical, computational and experimental approaches to knot theory.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, Honorable Mention. Xiaojie Gao. Plants capture around 20% of annual atmospheric carbon through photosynthesis, they play a critical role in affecting climate change. Satellite images give us a unique opportunity to monitor the global dynamics of plants’ green leaves and estimate the amount of carbon they capture each year. Vegetation indices calculated from satellite images can reflect the growing season and density of green leaves from spring to autumn, which directly affect their annual photosynthetic productivity. This map shows the annually accumulated value of a vegetation index, EVI2 in 2016 at the crossing region of Arkansas River and Mississippi River in the United States. Each pixel represents a 30-m area on the ground, and non-vegetated lands are colored white. Compared to darker green pixels, lighter green to yellow pixels mean either a longer growing season or a higher density, both of which are correlated with higher photosynthetic productivity.Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, Honorable Mention. Raja Manikam Bandari. The Huge Hurricane in the middle is disguised by two graphs. These graphs show the spectacular growth of cotton as a commercially significant crop in the United States. The timeline increases from bottom to top. The left graph charts the total amount of cotton produced annually in the United States (in ten-year intervals), amounts that exceeded 2 billion pounds per year by the 1850s. The right graph charts the increasing monetary value of U.S. cotton exports and notes the percentage of all U.S. exports accounted for in each year by cotton alone. Thus, to take the single year 1830 as an example, the left graph shows you that the United States produced about 1.5 billion pounds of cotton that year, while the right-hand side graph shows you that the sale of cotton abroad in 1830 brought about $75 million into the U.S. economy, and it notes that the $75 million generated that year by cotton exports represented 49% of all of the money brought into the U.S. economy that year by export sales of all sorts, agricultural and industrial. Never before or since has a single commodity so dominated the American economy, and the vast majority of that commodity was being produced with slave labor. Interestingly, along with the hurricane, in the backdrop, there are the Historic Hurricane tracks of the United States between the years 1842-2020. These hurricane tracks represent the cruelty faced by the slaves. The picture insert depicts an enslaved man named Peter, who was treated very badly during the cotton plantation era. Peter had been through hell. The scars on his back can be compared to the hurricane patterns of the United States (many lines across the image). The small water droplet at the bottom grows into a huge hurricane. This symbolically represents the slavery and cotton plantations that grew throughout the US like a hurricane.
Faculty/Staff Photography, 2nd Place. Dusten Jolly. The NC State ornamental sweetpotato breeding population forms a mosaic of genetic diversity in this composite drone image taken at the Horticultural Crops Research Station in Clinton, NC. The entire spectrum of plant colors in this image comes from just a few cycles of traditional breeding by the NCSU sweetpotato breeding program, resulting in over 6000 unique breeding lines planted in 2022.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, 2nd Place. Kaiying Chen. Chiggers are the larval stage of the families Trombiculidae and Leeuwenhoekiidae mites and some species can vector intercellular bacterium Orientia spp. and cause scrub typhus in humans. Scrub typhus is a life-threatening disease if left untreated. Chiggers parasitize on vertebrates and feed on liquified skin cells. The image shows a free-living chigger we collected in North Carolina.Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, 1st Place. Enrique Pena Martinez. NC is the top ranked state in sweetpotato production in the US. The industry supports over 700,000 jobs and brings $2.8 billion in revenue every year. The ‘Covington’ variety is a favorite among North Carolinians due to its super sweet flavor, bright orange color, and smooth texture. Hand-picking sweetpotatoes helps avoid damaging the delicate root and produce a more valuable crop. NC State is collaborating with growers across the state to investigate how current agricultural practices and environmental conditions are affecting shape and size of sweetpotatoes in order to identify optimal planting, growing, and harvesting conditions.
Faculty/Staff Photography, 1st Place. Michelle Jewell. Emily Nastase places a unique color ring on the leg of a Henslow’s sparrow. While we might view him as small and cute, he is one of many competitive and territorial males that call – literally call – this grassland home. Emily will monitor the movement patterns of these males to better understand how this “Near Threatened” species utilizes habitats.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Dhruv Dineshbhai Ghevariya. Protein fouling is a term used to describe the buildup of proteins on the surface of a material, such as a stainless steel pipe. This occurs when proteins in a fluid, such as milk or blood, come into contact with the surface of the pipe and begin to adhere to it during heating. Over time, these proteins can form a layer on the surface of the pipe, which is known as a protein fouling layer. In the image, we can see these protein fouling deposits on the surface of the pipe. This protein fouling is formed from oat protein. Currently, industry uses harsh chemicals to remove these fouling deposits, which are very harmful to the environment. However, we, as researchers, try to find a novel solution in the form of plasma-activated water to remove the fouling deposits.Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, 1st Place. Shuang Wu. Caterpillars arch their body segments to move either forward or retrieve from danger. A caterpillar’s movement is controlled by local curvature of its body. It’s body curves differently when it pulls itself forward than it does when it pushes itself backward. We’ve drawn inspiration from the caterpillar’s biomechanics to mimic that local curvature, and use nanowire heaters to control similar curvature and movement in the caterpillar-bot.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, 2nd Place. Matt Snider. This picture was taken with (right to left) Lucky Chisenga, Salifya Namukonda, Mark Chimfwembe, and myself while we conducted wildlife research in Kasanka National Park, Zambia. We used an array of these camera traps to observe the bat predator communities at the world’s largest annual bat migration which comes to the park from October-December. With wildlife related tourism serving as an economic engine in the area, Lucky, Salifya, and Mark will be using their monitoring skills and these camera traps, gifted to park management following our study, to better understand the animal populations in the park in order to better conserve and protect them in the future. NC State continues this partnership with the Kasanka Trust to continue skill building and research capacity development for these research scouts to study this unique natural phenomenon.Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Ankita Gupta. Sled dogs are like human endurance athletes. Every year 1000’s of sled dogs and their mushers race across Alaska and Canada and compete in the 1000 mile long Iditarod and other races. These athletes endure temperatures below -3 degrees Celsius and the brutal terrain. In the image we see a sled dog covered in icicles resting on some warm hay at the end of a long race.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Eric Gabilondo. This image may look like a lost city of ages past, with intricate structural features standing amongst the rubble. But it is actually a broken piece of a centimeter-sized crystal plate of a two-dimensional and layered metal oxide. Crystals as we commonly see are monolithic; large, smooth, shiny, and aesthetically pleasing. By breaking them open and using electron microscopy to explore on the micro- and nano-scale, we can visualize how the atomic structure assembles in intricate sheets to build the large crystal shapes we are familiar with. In our research, we carefully modify the synthesis conditions in order to better understand how crystals of materials grow, and how to control that growth, to create new and better materials to solve the challenges of tomorrow.
Undergraduate Student Microscopy, 2nd Place. Nora Hicks. Working in Dr. Clarke’s Physics lab, we are striving to make affordable and highly conductive plastics. We disperse highly conductive nanoparticles, called carbon nanotubes, into plastic. Using a process called photothermal heating we are able to manipulate conductivity and strength with lasers. Using a Fluorescence Microscope, we can predict the structure and properties of the plastic.Undergraduate Student Microscopy, 1st Place. Savannah Balogh. Genetically labeled neurons and glia in the mouse brain imaged using confocal microscopy. We are investigating what happens when there is deletion of essential exons of a gene, which impacts production of glial cell lineage (a type of brain cell) but not neuronal cell lineage, during brain development. This model can be used to understand basic principles of brain development, and for example responses of cells in the brain with different genotypes to various environmental factors or disease states.
Undergraduate Student Photography, 1st Place. Robert O’Connell. Our goals were to understand the ecology of Blue holes on a microscopic level as well as understand how blue hole ecotourism affects the local Androsian economy. We studied this so we could quantify and prove the importance, and relevance of blue holes in order to protect them.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, 1st Place. Ross Lampe. LGR5 is a well known marker for stem cells including follicular and intestinal stem cells. Using a transgenic pig model, LGR5 expressing cells is found to populate lung airways, as shown here as green cells beneath the red epithelial layer of a large airway).Faculty/Staff Microscopy, 1st Place. Elisabeth Wheeler. The structure and arrangement of water-conducting cells has consequences for woody plants’ responses to variations in water availability and their survival. In the areas where branches attach to the trunk, the orientation of those cells can appear complex and is important for ensuring water reaches the leaves. Light microscope view of Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina), native to North Carolina.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Video, Honorable Mention. Jiahui Chen. This is one of the z-stack microscopic video to show the three dimensional human mesothelial cell culture with microcarrier beads assay. The goal of my research is forming in-vitro adhesion assay to mimic post-surgical adhesions in order to test anti-adhesion membrane. Mesothelial cell is one of the important components in forming post-surgical adhesions, thus we develop and induce the mesothelial cell with microcarrier beads to form in-vitro adhesion assay and use it as an approachable method to look at in-vitro cell response as well as drug delivery function to potentially prevent post-surgical adhesion formation.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Video, 2nd Place. Nidhi Diwakar. Thin tendrils stretching from the center of the petri dish are trails of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) dye left behind by rapidly propelling active salt particles. This research focuses on the development of an active disinfecting paste, composed of FITC-coated bicarbonate salt crystals and 5-aminolevulinic acid, a cytotoxic agent. By harnessing a simple reaction, accelerated diffusion of therapeutic agents is achieved for use in rapid disinfection of dermal wounds
Graduate Student/Postdoc Video, 1st Place. Sergei Rigin. Visual representation of a polymer brush inside a liquid environment. The following video is the result of Molecular Dynamics Simulations of a system of polymer chains attached to some hydrophobic surface. The simulation shows the difference in brush behavior when placed in vacuum and in water.
Undergraduate Student Video, 1st Place. Elliott Schultz and Jayden Sansom. The Aquarium was created to showcase and extend the capabilities of the Cyma Rubin Visualization Gallery, an industry-quality 360 degree projection space within the University Libraries. The Aquarium was built in the Unity game engine and utilizes a custom virtual camera system, developed by Elliott Schultz and Jayden Sansom. When experiencing the Aquarium, spectators see a detailed coral reef with vibrant fish swimming around, transforming the immersive space into a relaxing underwater environment.
