First and foremost, would like to thank the photographers who provided over 50 pictures. It has been a very interesting edition with amazing photos, some of them spectacular.
This year's edition will feed the upcoming Materials Inspire. An open-source platform that ICMAB is getting ready to offer free, open-access images on Materials Science to other scientists, journalists, and the general public. It is expected to kick off before the end of the year.
This year's edition will feed the upcoming Materials Inspire. An open-source platform that ICMAB is getting ready to offer free, open-access images on Materials Science to other scientists, journalists, and the general public. It is expected to kick off before the end of the year.
To align this already-traditional contest with our newest platform, this year's categories were: Micro, Macro, and Virtual.
Macro Category
The Macro Category received 18 images showcasing materials or devices visible to the naked eye. These are the three winners:
First prize: 'Connect the dots'
By Dean Kos, a postdoctoral MSCA fellow in the e-MolMat group, where he focuses on organic transistors. In fact, the picture is "a sample with multiple contact pads connected through spring-loaded pins on a PCB, for measurement of multiple devices within an enclosure under inert conditions".
Second prize: 'Carbon Nanodots in Daylight'
By Benedikt Schaefer is a PhD candidate from Nanopto group. The description of his picture is: "The picture shows different solutions of Carbon nanoparticles synthesized from lemon and orange peel."
Third prize: 'Material Vermell [Red material]'
By the Director of the ICMAB David Amabilino! He submitted an image picturing "a red dye being purified as a solid where it shows a beautiful morphology".
Micro Category
The Micro Category received 27 images showcasing materials not visible to the naked eye, requiring specialised equipment to see them. These are the three winners:
First prize: 'Sunrise on Mars'
By Anna Esther Carrillo, a Scientific Services Technician in charge of the SEM-TEM services. She won the first prize thanks to this impresive picture showing a "SEM micrograph (QUANTA FEI 200FEG-ESEM) of a mixture of feldspars + quartz, i.e. a silicate-rich rock (granite/granodiorite type)."
Second prize: 'No More Ouches!'
Guillem Wetherell and Marta Kosanovic, from the NN Group and Nanomol-Bio, combined their different knowledges to have this picture: "Say goodbye to the dreaded needle — this Bacterial Cellulose Microneedle is here to make injections and blood tests a thing of the past. Grown, not manufactured, this tiny forest of spikes is your skin's new best friend ;)"
Third prize: '1%(S)Azo in PCM'
Another combined knowledge to offer an award-winning picture. Aysha Fasna and Agnes Voitsidou, from SusMoSys, showcased a "polarized optical microscopy image of an organic semiconductor thin film"
Virtual Category
And finally, but not least, the Virtual Category received 7 submissions. This category showcases models and simulations: software-generated pictures of materials that our personnel use in their research.
First prize: 'Electrostatic Control of Glycoprotein–Surface Interactions'
Willy Menacho and Horacio Guzman (Soft Matter Theory) presented this award-winning picture showcasing a "multiscale visualization of a viral spike glycoprotein interacting with a hydrophobic polarizable bilayer. The spike (green) presents three RBDs: one open (purple) and two closed (orange), surrounded by a glycan shield (red). Three glycans are highlighted: G1 (no sialic acids), G2 (one), and G3 (two). Increasing sialylation enhances electrostatic interactions (lightning features). The surface shows hydrophobic behavior with rounded water droplets."
Second prize: 'High Potential'
By Dean Kos, again! Kos presented a 40-anniversary-themed picture: "Electrostatic potential landscape between a “4”-shaped electrode set to a potential of 2026 volts, and a “0”-shaped one at 1986 volts. Data and plot generated in COMSOL Multiphysics."
Third prize: 'Dancing Queens'
By Núria Pujol, from the Nanomol-bio Grop. Pujol showed us "four carbocyanine divas hitting the stage, striking their best poses atop a shimmering nanovesicle membrane."
Congratulations to everyone who won, and thank you to all the participants!
Previous years
Daniel Rodríguez Urbano
22 June 2026