2009 Nikon Small World winners

The 2009 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition winners have been announced. The first place prize (pictured below) goes to a photograph of a thale cress anther taken by Heiti Paves of Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia. The 20X image was taken using a confocal microscope. More than 2,000 entries were received for this 35th year of the competition.

Other top winners included Gerd A. Guenther from Düsseldorf, Germany, who took second place with a 150X image of a Sonchus asper (spiny sowthistle) flower stem section taken with darkfield microscopy.

Pedro Barrios-Perez from the National Research Council of Canada’s Institute for Microstructural Sciences in Ottawa, Canada received third place for his picture of a wrinkled photoresist, which was taken at 200x using brightfield microscopy.

The People’s Choice Award went to a bundle of fluorescent actin protein filaments captured by Dennis Breitsprecher of Hannover, Germany. The image won the most votes from the public.

See more winners, and get information on entering next year’s competition at www.nikonsmallworld.com.

Vote for your favorite microscopy images in the Small World People’s Choice Award

Although the official judging for this year’s Nikon Small World Photomicrography competition took place earlier this year, you can still have a say in the People’s Choice Award by voting on your favorite images.

Have your say by rating images on a scale of 1 to 5 stars (5 being the best). Nikon asks that you rate each image only once. After voting closes on Oct. 2 at 5 pm EST the images will be ranked by their average score to determine the winner of the 2009 Small World People's Choice award. You can see how your picks did in the judged competition once those winners are announced on October 8.

Vote at www.nikonsmallworld.com/vote.

Nikon's Small World Photomicrography Contest

Only a few days left before the April 30 deadline to enter the 2009 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Contest. The top twenty winners get varying amounts of money for purchasing Nikon photographic, scientific or industrial equipment and accessories, with a 1st prize of $3,000.

Here are the 2008 winners via BioTechniques on Flickr in case you need inspiration for your 2009 Nikon Small World entry. 

For more information or to enter your image, visit the contest web site.