2020 SEM/TEM/EPMA Image Contest

Take Your Best Shot!

Submit an entry to the contest

What Makes a Winning Image?

A winning image requires the following attributes:

  1. Artistically or esthetically pleasing to look at (eye catching).
  2. Good composition, not unlike any piece of artwork (layout, brightness contrast, color…).
  3. Technically sound with no charging, sharp focus, no astigmatism and the correct detector and accelerating voltage (usually the lower the better).
  4. Careful and competent use of image processing and colorization.

2020 Calendar

Download the 2020 Calendar featuring winning images from the 2019 image contest. Request a printed calendar.

2020 SEM/TEM/EPMA Image Contest Winners

TITLE: A Different Kind of Weather; SUBJECT: Atmospheric weathering on the inside surface of a glass bottle. The green “branches” are crystals of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), the white “snowflakes” are hexagonal crystals of CaCO3, and the blue “sky” is the inside surface of a glass bottle.; CREDIT: Brandon Aldinger, American Glass Research; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL IT-300LV SEM
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January 2020 Winner
TITLE: Nano-folded Au catalyst; SUBJECT: We deposited 60 nm of Au on a heat-shrinkable polymer, and heated the film at 200 C for 3 mins to form the nano-folded Au catalyst; CREDIT: Kam Sang Kowk, Johns Hopkins Univ. - Nano Lett. 2019, 19, 12, 9154-9159 Nov 18, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b04564; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM-IT100 SEM
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February 2020 Winner
TITLE: Diatom 2; SUBJECT: Gold sputtered diatom, 7500x at 10kV; CREDIT: Rob Flickenger; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JSM-6320F
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March 2020 Winner
TITLE: Flower Tower; SUBJECT: Stigma of aster flower (Symphyotrichum Tradescantii); CREDIT: Flavio Guerra Loureiro, Vallourec; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL 6360
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April 2020 Winner
TITLE: Coral Reefs; SUBJECT: The structures on butterfly wings gives the feel of underwater coral reefs; CREDIT: SAURABH PARMAR, Dr.K.C.Patel R & D Center, CHARUSAT; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM 6010LA
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May 2020 Winner
TITLE: amastigotes; SUBJECT: Leishmania amazonensis amastigotes; CREDIT: Jéssica Carreira de Paula, Universidade Estadual de Maringá; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JEM-1400 TEM
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June 2020 Winner
TITLE: Seeds on the cradle; SUBJECT: Pollen grains over stigma of aster flower (Symphyotrichum Tradescantii); CREDIT: Flavio Guerra Loureiro, Vallourec; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL 6360
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July 2020 Winner
TITLE: Foraminifera; SUBJECT: Distribution of Mg in a foraminifera; CREDIT: Anette von der Handt, University of Minnesota; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JXA-8530FPlus
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August 2020 Winner

2020 SEM/TEM/EPMA Image Contest Entrants

TITLE: Volcano Eruption; SUBJECT: A cross-section view of a stack of layers, the 2D MoS2 structure grown on AlScN/Pt/Si substrate and coated by Ti/Au; CREDIT: PARIASADAT MUSAVIGHARAVI, University of Pennsylvania; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL F200 TEM
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Volcano Eruption
TITLE: Desirable Atomic Defects; SUBJECT: A network of planar defects in Aluminum thin film; CREDIT: PARIASADAT MUSAVIGHARAVI, University of Pennsylvania; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL F200 TEM
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Desirable Atomic Defects
TITLE: Mandible; SUBJECT: Ant on SEM stub on SEI mode; CREDIT: Julie Tran, San Joaquin Delta College; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL SEM 6390
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Mandible
TITLE: Battle to the Death; SUBJECT: Insects in DAG on an SEM stub for a lab experiment; CREDIT: Julie Tran, San Joaquin Delta College; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL SEM 6390
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Battle to the Death
TITLE: Inside of a worker ant's gaster; SUBJECT: SEM of an worker ant showing the internal organs of its gaster; CREDIT: Fábio Dossi, ITP; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM-IT200LA
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Inside of a worker ant's gaster
TITLE: Fracture; SUBJECT: Gold Tin Solder Fracture; CREDIT: Sheri Neva, Eurofins - EAG; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM6610LV
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Fracture
TITLE: Rusting asteroid; SUBJECT: Starch granules anchored in a ginger fragment; CREDIT: DIEGO FERREIRA REGALADO, Center for Analysis of Biomedical Phenomena of the University of State of Amazonas - CMABio/UEA; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JSM-IT500HR
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Rusting asteroid
TITLE: Nano Maze in Velvet Rose; SUBJECT: Morphology of WO3 thin films; CREDIT: Saurabh Parmar, CHARUSAT with credit to Dr. S Kapatel and S Patel; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM 6010LA
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Nano Maze in Velvet Rose
TITLE: Coating delamination; SUBJECT: Material science: breaking of coating deposited on stainless steel substrate; CREDIT: Emile HAYE, UNamur; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL 6010LV
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Coating delamination
TITLE: Dinosaur tail?; SUBJECT: Silicon nanowire coated by CrN coating, for supercapacitor application; CREDIT: Emile HAYE, UNamur; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: SEM JEOL 7500F
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Dinosaur tail?
TITLE: Pollen of Richardia scabra L. (Ribiaceae); SUBJECT: Pollen of Richardia scabra L. (Ribiaceae); CREDIT: Fabio Dossi, ITP; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JSM-IT200LA
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Pollen of Richardia scabra L. (Ribiaceae)
TITLE: Together we will conquer; SUBJECT: Tachyzoites of Toxoplasma gondii replicating in a vacuole inside the host cell; CREDIT: Leandro Lemgruber, University of Glasgow; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL IT-100
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Together we will conquer
TITLE: Spherical and microfibers; SUBJECT: Spherical and microfibers in 3D-printed polymer; CREDIT: Nahal Aliheidari, Integrated Nanosystems Development Institute (at IUPUI), Purdue; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JSM-7800F
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Spherical and microfibers
TITLE: An undesired but beautiful overgrowth; SUBJECT: Cross section image of copper nanowires electrochemically synthesised into AAO template; CREDIT: Maria de Lourdes Gonzalez-Juarez, University of Southampton; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM 6500F
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An undesired but beautiful overgrowth
TITLE: podocytes; SUBJECT: Football processes of glomerular podocytes; CREDIT: Dr. Anil Kumar Pasupulati, Dept. Biochemistry, University of Hyderabad / Image taken at TEM center facility of IISER mohali By Ravinder Singh; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: TEM model JEM F200
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podocytes
TITLE: Mom and Daughter; SUBJECT: B16F10 melanoma cells in the last step of mitosis; CREDIT: Maria de los Angeles Ramirez, CIC biomaGUNE, San Sebastian, España; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: SEM JEOL JSM-6490LV
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Mom and Daughter
TITLE: MicroDonut; SUBJECT: Polymeric microparticles with Au-Pd sputtering; CREDIT: Maria de los Angeles Ramirez, CIC biomaGUNE, San Sebastian, España - Instituto de Nanosistemas, San Martín, Argentina; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: SEM JEOL JSM-6490LV
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MicroDonut
TITLE: Ant head; SUBJECT: Ant head; CREDIT: Flavio Guerra Loureiro; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL 6360
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Ant head
TITLE: May Bursting into Life; SUBJECT: 2 of 12 tiny cocoons on a leaf; CREDIT: Sheri Neva, Eurofins EAG Materials Science; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL 6610LV
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May Bursting into Life
TITLE: Python resting under the autumn flowers; SUBJECT: A butterfly’s mouth is a long tube, through which it sucks the sweet nectar from flowers. When the butterfly does not want to eat, it rolls the tube up!; CREDIT: SAURABH PARMAR, Dr.K.C.Patel R & D Center, CHARUSAT; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM 6010LA
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Python resting under the autumn flowers
TITLE: There’s a butterfly that sees you through its 12,000 eyes; SUBJECT: Butterflies have two large eyes, which are made of many, many small hexagonal parts. These are called 'compound eyes'.; CREDIT: SAURABH PARMAR, Dr.K.C.Patel R & D Center, CHARUSAT; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM 6010LA
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There’s a butterfly that sees you through its 12,000 eyes
TITLE: A Night Sky in the Desert; SUBJECT: 150 nm of Bi material deposited on Si wafer by sputtering. Sample tilted 26 degrees; CREDIT: Jesus Javier Alcantar Peña, CIDESI – Querétaro; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM-7200F SEM
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A Night Sky in the Desert
TITLE: Caribbean Sea; SUBJECT: 150 nm of Bi deposited on Si by RF Sputtering at RT. Ocean edge effect due to release of adhesive tape used during the Bi deposit to create a step. Sand color corresponds to Si and watercolor correspond to Bi, the sample was tilted to improve the like-ocean view; CREDIT: Jesus Javier Alcantar Peña, Julian Carrillo (coloring),Edgar Sierra (deposition of Bi material), CIDESI – Queretaro; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JSM-7200F FESEM
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Caribbean Sea
TITLE: Beetle in Blue; SUBJECT: Beetle Eye colored in alcohol paint; CREDIT: Sheri Neva, Eurofins - EAG Material Science; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL 6610LV
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Beetle in Blue
TITLE: ZnO star; SUBJECT: ZnO stars, multipods and ellipsoids were synthesized by mixing Zn(NO3)2 and NaOH solutions at once under stirring condition at room temperature ; CREDIT: Ravinder Singh - IISER MOHALI; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JEM-F200 TEM
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ZnO star
TITLE: Nano-Jellyfish; SUBJECT: Colorized TEM image of polymeric nano-jellyfish developed via aqueous polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA); CREDIT: Spyridon Varlas, University of Birmingham; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JEM-2100 TEM
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Nano-Jellyfish
TITLE: Diatom 1; SUBJECT: Gold sputtered diatom, 1800x at 10kV; CREDIT: Rob Flickenger; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JSM-6320F
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Diatom 1
TITLE: A red pilgrim; SUBJECT: Varicose veins segment treated by sclerotherapy and a red blood cell; CREDIT: Diego Regalado, Aldenora Vasconcelos and Jander Matos, Center for Analysis of Biomedical Phenomena of the University of State of Amazonas - CMABio/UEA; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JSM-IT500HR
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A red pilgrim
TITLE: Nano-barbed wire network; SUBJECT: A carbon nanofiber composite network made through Damage Induced Surface Texturing. The image is colorized; CREDIT: Navid Namdari, University of Toledo; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM-7500F
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Nano-barbed wire network
TITLE: New Vision; SUBJECT: Colorized SEM image of a developing eye of a 18 hrs-old zebrafish embryo (x500); CREDIT: Vijayasankar Raman, The University of Mississippi; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JSM-7200FLV
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New Vision
TITLE: Surrounded; SUBJECT: Tumor cells on a myelin covered wire; CREDIT: Simone Lauciello, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM-6490LA SEM
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Surrounded
TITLE: Butterfly Wing; SUBJECT: Butterfly Wing; CREDIT: Saurabh Parmar; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM 6010LA
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Butterfly Wing
TITLE: God is an Artist; SUBJECT: Agriculture; CREDIT: Saurabh Parmar; METHOD/INSTRUMENT: JEOL JSM 6010LA
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God is an Artist
TITLE: Freestanding nano-folded Au catalyst; SUBJECT: ; CREDIT: Kam Sang Kwok, Johns Hopkins University; METHOD/INSTRUMENT:
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Freestanding nano-folded Au catalyst

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