2019 was the year of our first truly global microscope imaging contest. Our Image of the Year (IOTY) competition was divided into four categories: EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), the Americas, the Asia-Pacific, and an overall global winner. Our expert jurors managed to select four winning photos from among many captivating entries, though it certainly wasn’t an easy task.
So far, we’ve presented profiles of the 2019 winners for the Americas and EMEA. The Asia-Pacific regional winner was Howard Vindin of Australia. Here, we share our interview with him where he talks about his experience with microscopes, his artistic eye, and what technique he used to capture his prize-winning image.
Chunsong Yan, Business Development Manager, Life Science, Olympus Australia and New Zealand with Howard Vindin, IOTY contest winner for Asia (l to r)
Interview with Howard Vindin
Q: What do you do professionally?
A: Research
Q: Does your profession intersect with imaging?
A: I use imaging heavily for my research and use optimization images or things that I’ve seen that are particularly cool to create art.
Q: Where and when did you first learn to use a microscope?
A: During my honor’s year at UNSW (University of New South Wales).
Q: What do you find most fascinating about microscopy?
A: It allows you to physically see what is going on in a microscopic scale.
Q: Where does this fascination stem from?
A: It’s nice to be able to see things occurring that nobody else has seen before.
Q: Could you tell us about what you are currently working on professionally?
A: I’m investigating the origins of elastic fiber fluorescence and using this to visualize changes that occur in the extracellular matrix in end-stage lung disease in order to better understand the progression of the disease.
Using Social Media to Share Microscopic Views of the World
Q: When did you become inspired to use microscopes to create art? What first inspired you?
A: I started a couple of years ago. People kept telling me that I needed to create an Instagram account to showcase my images.
Q: What does your winning image show?
A: Autofluorescence showing structural details of a developing mouse embryo.
Q: How did you create the image?
A: I performed a tiled acquisition using a multiphoton microscope.
Q: What do you personally find exciting about the image?
A: It’s interesting to be able to visualize all the structural details of a developing embryo in a single image.
Q: Why did you choose this picture as your entry for the competition?
A: It showed nicely how autofluorescence could be used to distinguish between different structural features in biological images.
Olympus’ 2020 Global Image of the Year Contest Is Underway
Submissions are currently being accepted for our 2020 Image of the Year contest. The deadline is January 10, 2021, so don’t delay. We’re excited to see and showcase the amazing artistic talent of the global scientific community. Stay tuned!
Related Content
Announcing the Winners of Our 2019 Global Image of the Year Award
Olympus Life Science—Instagram
Olympus Digital Image Galleries
Olympus BioScapes – Olympus’ International Digital Imaging Competition from 2004 to 2014
