NERSC Art Contest Winners Show Beauty in Science

By Elizabeth Ball

Graphical Abstract Image Elizabeth Grace Clark

“Anatomy of an Agricultural Antagonist,” a reconstruction of an image of the blue-green sharpshooter, was one of the winning entries in NERSC's 50th anniversary “Science as Art” competition. - Credit: Elizabeth Grace Clark

There is beauty in science: in curiosity, in effort, in thinking things through, in the illumination of new understanding. Sometimes beauty is also revealed in the process: Representing the natural world calls upon color, pattern, and symmetry.

To celebrate the beauty found in 50 years of science research, the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) is pleased to announce the winners of the NERSC 50th Anniversary Science as Art Contest. The winners were announced on October 22, at the 50th anniversary edition of the NERSC User Group Annual Meeting.

Still images

Winner: Staff Choice | Winner: People’s Choice

Nyx Montage of an N-Body+Hydro Simulation of the Evolving Universe“ (2012–2024) - Zarija Lukic, Andrew Myers, and Susan Brand

Winner: Visual Impact | Runner-Up: People’s Choice

“Exotic Supernovae,” (2016–2020) - Ken Chen

Winner: Best Historical Image

“Pore Scale Reactive Transport in Calcite” (2012) - David Trebotich

Winner: Creatives’ Choice

“Siena Galaxy Atlas UMAP” (2024) - Julia Largett

Winner: Editor’s Pick | Runner-Up: Creatives’ Choice

“Fluctuations of Electric Field in Asymmetric Magnetic Reconnection” (2024) - Haoming Liang

Winner: Best Use of Color

“Every Particle Matters” (2024) - Min Gee Cho

Winner: Best Use of 3-D

“T center in silicon” (2022) - Weiru Chen

Runner-Up: Visual Impact

“Galactic Eddies: The Roiling Seas of Interstellar Space” (2023–2024) - Ka Wai Ho

Runner-Up: Creatives’ Choice

“Nanoparticles Beyond Their Phase Value” (2024) - Stephanie Ribet

Runner-Up: Best Use of Color

“Polymer party across the spectrum” (2024) - Stephanie Ribet

Runner-Up: Visual Impact

“Anatomy of an Agricultural Antagonist” (2022) - Elizabeth Grace Clark

Runner-Up: Best Historical Image

“Multiscale electron temperature fluctuations in the  DIII-D tokamak” (2016) - Christopher Holland

Runner-Up: Best Use of 3-D

“Magnetization and magnetic field from source-free exchange-correlation functional” (2023) - Guy C. Moore

Animations

Winner: People’s Choice | Runner-Up: Staff Pick


“The Birth and Death of Axion Strings” (2020–2024) - Credit: Malte Buschmann

Winner: Creatives’ Choice


“Rayleigh-Taylor unstable flame in Type Ia supernovae” (2004) - Michael Zingale

Winner: Editor’s Pick


“Magnetic Reconnection” (2024) - Sarah Peery

Winner: Best Use of Color

“Sand under pressure” (2023–2024) - Hasitha Sithadar

Winner: Visual Impact


“Large-eddy simulation of the AFRL rotating detonation rocket engine” (2022–2024) - Matthew Bonnani

Winner: Best Use of 3D


“Ceramic matrix composite microCT image acquired with X-ray synchrotron at LBNL’s particle accelerator and result of fiber detection” (2015) - Dani Ushizima

Winner: Staff Pick | Runner-Up: People’s Choice

“Galactic Eddies: The Roiling Seas of Interstellar Space” (2023–2024) -Credit: Ka Wai Ho 

Runner-Up: Creatives’ Choice


“Homoclinic tangle disturbance of the last closed magnetic surface, called magnetic separatrix, in DIII-D tokamak” (2022) - Seung-Hoe Ku

Runner-Up: Best Use of Color

“Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Universal Nanoparticle Flu Vaccine Candidate” (2024) - Victor Ovchinnikov

Runner-Up: Visual Impact


“Water droplet blown up by an X-ray free electron laser” (2023) - Claudia Parisuana

Runner-Up: Best Use of 3D

“Flow in paper pressing drying felt” (2017) - David Trebotich

About NERSC and Berkeley Lab

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) is the mission computing facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the nation’s single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences.

Located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), NERSC serves 11,000 scientists at national laboratories and universities researching a wide range of problems in climate, fusion energy, materials sciences, physics, chemistry, computational biology, and other disciplines. An average of 2,000 peer-reviewed science results a year rely on NERSC resources and expertise, which has also supported the work of seven Nobel Prize-winning scientists and teams. 

NERSC is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility.

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