Nano SunImage credit: Prof. Moon Kim's group (Ning Lu), University of Texas at Dallas(January 14, 2016 -- Peabody, MA) -- JEOL USA selected two Grand Prize winners from a large collection of customer images submitted to the 2015 Image Contest throughout the calendar year. While one image was selected to win each month, the Grand Prize images exhibited the very best composition and resolution, and demonstrated excellent technical skills with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).  

The Grand Prize TEM image was awarded to Prof. Moon Kim's group (Ning Lu), University of Texas at Dallas.  Entitled "Nano Sun," it is a pseudo-colored TEM image of a 500 nanometer silicate nanoshell particle. The particle contains iron oxide concentrated on the inside of the shell as evidenced in the bright red ring. The shell's outer ring resembles a tiny solar flare. This image was taken on the JEOL JEM-ARM200F atomic resolution TEM housed in Prof. Kim's "Nano and Beyond Lab" at the University of Texas at Dallas. The sample is from Prof. Andrew Kummel at University of California, San Diego. In 2014, Prof. Kim won the Grand Prize for his atomic resolution TEM image entitled "Nano Star." 

Commelina erectaImage credit: José R. Almodóvar Rivera, University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez CampusThe Grand Prize SEM image was awarded to José R. Almodóvar Rivera, University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus. The stunning false-colored image displays excellent depth of field and clearly shows the intricate details of an anther, the pollen-producing part of a flower, with an artist’s flair. The plant's scientific name is Commelina erecta. The sample was critically point dried, sputter coated, and imaged with JEOL JSM-5410 LV, an older SEM model in regular use at the Biology Department’s Microscopy Center. 

For 2016 JEOL has produced a 24-page full-color calendar featuring the winning image for each month during the past year and made these available to its customers. 

JEOL USA has already posted new entries submitted for the 2016 customer image contest, and plans to award a monthly prize as well as two grand prizes for the year.  Visit http://www.jeolusa.com/winners to see the gallery of images. JEOL encourages all JEOL SEM & TEM users to submit images to this year’s contest for a chance to be recognized for their technical and artistic expertise.