Come Closer: 2015 Wellcome Image Awards to be displayed nationwide

Showcasing the best in science imaging talent and techniques, this year's winning images include: a scanning electron micrograph of a greenfly's eye; a clinical photograph of an elderly woman's curved spine; an illustration of pollen grains; a confocal micrograph showing drug-carrying particles in the lungs of a mouse; and a picture that shows the intricacies of a paediatric multi-sensory unit.

Scientist and broadcaster Adam Rutherford, who was a member of the judging panel, will be presenting this year’s awards. He said: "The breath-taking riches of the imagery that science generates are so important in telling stories about research and helping us to understand often abstract concepts. It's not just about imaging the very small either, it's about understanding life, death, sex and disease: the cornerstones of drama and art. Once again, the Wellcome Image Awards celebrate all of this and more with this year’s incredible range of winning images."

Following the success of last year’s Wellcome Image Award exhibitions, held simultaneously at venues in all four countries of the UK, the 2015 winning images will be brought to even more locations. 11 science centres, museums and galleries, from the Eden Project in Cornwall to Satrosphere in Aberdeen, and as far afield as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Koch Institute), USA, will display the images in their own styles to spark imaginations everywhere.

The following venues are participating:

• At-Bristol
• Cambridge Science Centre
• Dundee Science Centre
• Glasgow Science Centre
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Koch Institute), USA
• Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), Manchester
• Satrosphere, Aberdeen Techniquest, Cardiff
• The Eden Project, Cornwall
• The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, USA
• W5, Belfast

The images will also be displayed in the window of the Wellcome Trust headquarters in London, and will be made available on the Wellcome Image Awards website. They already feature in Wellcome Images collections, where they can be accessed and used along with more than 40,000 other contemporary biomedical and clinical images. The Awards were established in 1997 to reward contributors to the collection for their outstanding work.

Catherine Draycott, Head of Wellcome Images and a member of the judging panel, said: "This year’s selection of winning images is not only beautiful; they bring to life an incredible array of innovative imaging techniques, and hint at stories and ideas that go beyond the visual. We are thrilled that they will be displayed in so many venues, and look forward to seeing the range of exhibitions, as diverse as the images themselves."

The 20 winning images were chosen by nine judges from all those acquired by the Wellcome Images picture library in the past year, and will be awarded at a ceremony on 18 March 2015, where the overall winner will also be revealed.

Since 2011 Wellcome Images have also partnered with the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bringing images of their work into the Awards. This year, each organisation will feature an image from their respective selections in the other’s Awards and provide a judge for each panel: Catherine Draycott, Head of Wellcome Images and Anne Deconinck, Executive Director at the Koch Institute. More information can be found about the Koch Institute Public Galleries and Image Awards on their website.