UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The winners of the 15th annual Materials Visualization Competition (MVC), a scientific visual and artistic competition sponsored by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) and the Materials Research Institute (MRI) at Penn State, have been announced. MVC celebrates the quality of research in materials at Penn State and promotes awareness of materials science through visualization.

Images were judged by a panel of professionals in materials and the arts. Participants chose which imaging category their image would be judged in — scientific imaging or computer rendering. The judges selected winners in the following categories: best of show, visual appeal and scientific imaging or computation rendering. Cash prizes for the competition totaled $1,800, with the best in show receiving $500. In all other categories winners received: $250 for first place, $100 for second place, and $50 for third place.

The best of show award went to Maria Hilse, assistant research professor, Materials Research Institute, for the entry, “TETRIS – materials research style.”

The Visual Appeal award winners are:

• First place: “The white cliffs of Dover” by Benjamin Aronson, graduate student, materials science and engineering.
• Second place: “Waves: In the deep end of additive manufacturing” by Nancy Huang, graduate student, materials science and engineering.
• Third place: “An OH1 crystallization in a galaxy far, far away” by Martin Terrazas Lopez, graduate student, electrical engineering.

The Imaging: Scientific Imaging award winners are:

• First place: “Nano cookie” by Hyunju Ahn, visiting scholar, electrical engineering.
• Second place: “A smiling face: an image displaying enhancer-driven expression of a bacterial reporter gene in the optic lobes of fruit fly’s brain” by Zhi-Chun Lai, professor of biology and biochemistry and molecular biology.

• Third place: “A micro citadel under siege” by Lidan Zhang, undergraduate student, electrical engineering.

The Imaging: Computational Rendering award winners are:

• First place: “Electronic soup: a peek at the fundamental bonding of molecules” by Alyssa Santos, graduate student, chemistry.
• Second place: “Study on lithiation of S8 on Ni2P nanoparticle’s (001) surface to improve Li-S battery cathode kinetics and stability: depiction of sulfur’s transformation via Li polysulfide intermediates and associated charge density difference over the catalyst surface” by Ricardo Amaral, graduate student, energy and mineral engineering.
• Third place: “T7- phage plays PacMan with E. coli microcolony” by Andres Valdez, postdoctoral scholar, biomedical engineering.

The People’s Choice Award judging took place online by the general public, and more than 3,000 votes were cast. The winner of the 2023 People's Choice Award and $100 was the image “Who loves the sun” by Furkan Turker, graduate student, materials science and engineering.

All MVC winning entries may be viewed online at sites.psu.edu/mvcs. Entry is open to all current Penn State undergraduates, graduates, postdocs and faculty working on materials-related topics. Call for submissions for the MVC16 will be posted in early 2024.