See the winning 2025 Images of Research
Each year, the Graduate College and University Library organize the Image of Research competition, an exhibit to showcase the breadth and diversity of research at UIC. Students enrolled in a graduate or professional degree program at UIC are invited to submit an image they created along with a brief description of how the image relates to their overall research.
This year’s winning entries span miles, from Greenland to Chicago to labs at UIC.
The winning entries are chosen by a multidisciplinary jury and exhibited in an online gallery on the Graduate College website and the UIC institutional repository, where you can read the full descriptions.
Roll over the images below to see what they are and how they were created.
Winners — still image
1st place: “Quiet Urgency”
What are we looking at? This photograph was taken near the Ilulissat Glacier in Greenland during a monthlong Arctic research expedition. My work focuses on how climate change impacts biogeochemical processes in the Arctic Ocean, particularly how fresh water from melting glaciers, sea ice and rivers affect phytoplankton production.
How did you make this image? We had paused near the glacier to sit quietly and listen to the ice melt, an incredibly peaceful yet powerful moment. I quickly captured this photo on my iPhone, wanting to preserve that feeling and document both the beauty of the Arctic and the urgency of the changes unfolding around us.
2nd place: “Toxic Masterpiece: The Art of Pollution in the Chicago River”
What are we looking at? At first glance, this looks like modern art, but it is actually pollution floating on the Chicago River. The rainbow effect comes from gas bubbles pushing up oils and chemicals hidden in the riverbed, left behind by decades of industrial activity in this area.
How did you make this image? I took this photo while collecting data for my research, which uses machine learning to predict these bubble bursts. The goal? Smarter ways to manage and clean our rivers.
3rd place: “We’re Stardust, Remember?”
What are we looking at? This image captures brain cells from the hippocampus — a region essential for memory and learning — expanded nearly four times their original size.
How did you make this image? In the Gao Lab, we use expansion microscopy to study the brain at nanoscale resolution. Glowing cyan astrocytes stretch like stars, magenta nucleoli pulse at the heart of each cell and golden mRNA dots scatter like stardust. I used fluorescent labeling and a Nikon spinning disk confocal microscope to capture this moment of cosmic beauty in the brain.
Winners — moving image
Madison Taylor
1st place: “Bacteriophages as an Alternative to Antibiotics”
What are we looking at? This animation introduces bacteriophages — viruses that infect and kill bacteria — as a potential alternative to antibiotics. The story follows a bacteriophage as it hunts down an antibiotic-resistant bacterium in a stylized intestinal environment. It’s meant to give a simple visual explanation of how phages work and why they’re being explored as a promising new therapy.
How did you make this video? I used Cinema4D and Redshift, with final touches in After Effects.
Landon Richard Dyken
2nd place: “Accelerating Graph Rendering in the Web”
What are we looking at? In this video, we see an application I created for visualizing graph data that uses new algorithms to allow for fast rendering in the web.
How did you make this video? I produced this video by rendering several open-source scientific datasets, along with one I created from the UIC logo. I also included a comparison with the previous state-of-the-art method to show how my work greatly improves performance and enables larger-scale data than previously possible.
Jasmine Jones
3rd place: “Investigating Chicago’s Digital Divide through Participatory STEM Learning”
What are we looking at? In this episode, we spotlight a week in our summer technology program, where youth from Chicago’s West Side explore the city’s digital divide. They examined how inconsistent internet speeds and pricing from major service providers disproportionately impact their communities.
How did you make this video? This video highlights a segment from the docuseries by my nonprofit organization, Fresh Supply, called “Fresh Only, Please!”
Landon RichardHonorable mentions — still image
Honorable mention — still image
“Boiling Ballet: The Art of Dancing Bubbles”
What are we looking at? This is a mirrored depiction of nucleate boiling from a heated wire submerged in a liquid pool. What appears as a simple process — bubbles forming and rising — is really a complex interplay of heat transfer, phase change and fluid dynamics.
How did you make this image? Bubble formation is not random but follows an intricate choreography that, without simulations, would remain obscured. These numerical models reveal the hidden physics governing nucleate boiling, enabling a deeper understanding and optimization of heat transfer.
“Cultivating Spiritual Forces”
What are we looking at? In the Midwest’s Driftless region, biodynamic farmers practice a “spiritual science” that sees the world as full of spiritual forces. They see fostering the proper arrangement of these energies in their crops as their role. This image, taken in the fall of 2024, shows a key event in the biodynamic agricultural year: preparing manure for making compost.
How did you make this image? Fresh cow manure is stuffed into cow horns, which are then buried for the winter. Each spring, the horns are dug up and the manure is turned into a fertilizer used to enrich compost. The horns are carefully arranged so no two horns touch; leaving space between them allows spiritual forces to flow into the horns.
“Dendritic Cell and T Cell Interaction”
What are we looking at? The interaction between a dendritic cell and a T cell during antigen presentation.
How did you make this image? I emulated the look of a scanning electron microscope image using Maxon Cinema 4D. The lighting setup was carefully designed to highlight the textural contrasts, adding to the realism. After rendering the scene, I further refined the image in Adobe Photoshop, where I composited the various elements and fine-tuned the details to match the desired aesthetic.
“Building Composites”
What are we looking at? I have been making drawings on folded pieces of paper that I carry with me while I travel around Chicago.
How did you make this image? I draw map-like lines and images as I respond to what I see around me. In “Building Composites,” I took some of my favorite moments from these drawings and replicated them in the studio on canvas.
“Partial Rebound of a Liquid Drop on a Hydrophobic Surfaced Item”
What are we looking at? A “partial rebound” drop impact on a solid surface. I captured a pure water drop a few milliseconds after impact onto a 50% pre-stretched Teflon surface. Due to the impact dynamics, the liquid drop stays partly in contact with the Teflon surface and launches one or more droplets at its top.
How did you make this image? This is the exact moment when the secondary droplet is about to detach from the main drop. I used a high-speed camera with an acquisition frame rate of 2,000 frames per second and back LED lighting.
“Correspondences”
What are we looking at? A palimpsest artwork of my family’s archive of letters about their escape, survival and loss in the Holocaust. I used three letters: two about my grandparents’ escape from Germany to South Africa and a third about my family’s story.
How did you make this image? I scanned text fragments and projected them onto a paper scroll to enable the retracing of selected passages. By enlarging and elevating the text, I was intrigued by how these simple pieces of paper contain layers of meaning – life, death, truth and despair.
Honorable mentions — moving image
Juan Acosta-Sequeda
“Our city is alive!”
What are we looking at? People’s daily activities in a city are facilitated by interconnected electric, transportation, water and other systems. These infrastructures form a complex web of activity that drives a city’s rhythm.
How did you make this video? I am displaying the electricity usage in the Chicago region, where we have access to around 4 million smart-meter readings. Residential meters are yellow, and commercial ones are blue.
Chris Carducci
“Journey Through Ice: Navigating Air and Dye Channels”
What are we looking at? When contaminated ice slides off a surface, it leaves a solute-enriched layer. There must some mechanism that collects contaminants in the bulk ice and channels them to the supercooled surface where they pool as an unfrozen aqueous liquid.
How did you make this video? We looked through a column of ice contaminated with dye. As a camera with a macro lens moves its view at 20 microns per second through the ice, we see air channels that formed from trapped air bubbles which diffused out during the freezing process.
