Wellcome Image Awards: a story beyond every picture

The Wellcome Image Awards 2011, celebrating the most striking and technically excellent images acquired by the Wellcome Images picture library in the past 18 months, were presented at Wellcome Collection in London on 23 February.

5-minute read
5-minute read

This year's winners have used techniques ranging from clinical photography to brain tractography to capture the wonder of medicine and the life sciences in all of their glorious splendour. See the winning images on the Wellcome Image Awards website.

From a stunning photomicrograph of a zebrafish retina to a reconstructed CT scan of a patient's aneurysm, the winners showcase the diversity of images that are made available for public use through the Wellcome Library's image repository, Wellcome Images.

Each of the 20 extraordinary images and one animation has been carefully selected by a panel of judges including Alice Roberts (anatomist, author and science broadcaster), Adam Rutherford (TV presenter, science writer and multimedia editor at 'Nature'), Fergus Walsh (medical correspondent at the BBC) and Eric Hilaire (Picture Editor at the 'Guardian').

Special Awards have been given to David Bishop's photograph of a live donor kidney transplant and a fluorescent micrograph showing cell division and gene expression in plant cells, by Fernan Federici and Lionel Dupuy.

Commenting on the winning images, Dr Rutherford says: "Throughout the history of science and discovery, key ideas have been best described and shared through diagrams. How much easier is it to understand the double helix structure of DNA when you can picture it? And crucially, that structure itself is key to understanding its function. At this year's Wellcome Image Awards we celebrate images that not only help to enlighten key scientific ideas and advances, but do so with the added value of aesthetic beauty. We have selected images in which the underlying impact of the science is only enhanced by the striking and emotive visuals."

Catherine Draycott, Head of Wellcome Images, adds: "It's easy to forget that behind each of these intriguing images is a complex story of scientific pursuit. We search out hundreds of images from working scientists and artists each year and the awards offer a superb opportunity for people to find out about the cutting-edge science and the people behind the pictures."

The selected images are on display at Wellcome Collection until July 2011. Each image is accompanied by 'the story behind the picture', to explain how it was created, what it adds to scientific understanding and why the judges felt it stands out.

Wellcome Image Awards 2011 exhibition
23 February-July 2011 (exact closing date TBC)
Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE
Admission free
Mon: closed
Tue, Wed: 10.00-18.00
Thu: 10.00-22.00
Fri, Sat: 10.00-18.00
Sun: 11.00-18.00

Images

The winning images can be seen on the Wellcome Image Awards website.

Videos

Short videos highlighting some of the techniques used to create the winning images are available on the Wellcome Image Awards website and on the Wellcome Collection YouTube channel.

Wellcome Image Awards 2011 winners

  • Blood clot on a plaster - Anne Weston, London Research Institute, Cancer Research UK.
  • Moth wing scales - Kevin Mackenzie, University of Aberdeen.
  • Honeybee - David McCarthy and Annie Cavanagh.
  • Periodontal bacteria - Derren Ready, Eastman Dental Institute.
  • Caterpillar proleg - Spike Walker.
  • Zebrafish retina - Kara Cerveny, Steve Wilson’s lab, UCL.
  • Ruby-tailed wasp - Spike Walker.
  • Foreleg of a male diving beetle - Spike Walker.
  • Adult male mosquito - Spike Walker.
  • Mouse retina - Freya Mowat, UCL.
  • Cavefish embryo - Monica Folgueira, Steve Wilson’s lab, UCL.
  • Cell division and gene expression in plants - Fernan Federici, University of Cambridge, and Lionel Dupuy, Scottish Crop Research Institute.
  • Wheat infected with ergot fungus - Anna Gordon, National Institute of Agricultural Biology, and Fernan Federici, University of Cambirdge.
  • Pyramidal neurons - Michael Häusser and Hermann Cuntz, UCL.
  • Laparoscopy surgery - David Bishop, UCL Medical School.
  • Developing mouse kidney – Bob Kao and Kieran Short, Monash University.
  • Blastocyst embryo - Agnieszka Jedrusik and Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, Gurdon Institute, Cambridge.
  • Chromosome lifetime map - David Lleres, University of Dundee.
  • Visualising neuronal tracts - Nuada Medical Specialist Imaging.
  • Mouse embryo animation - Ian Smyth, Monash University.
  • Popliteal aneurysm - Arindam Chaudhuri.

Judging panel

  • ​Adam Rutherford - writer and 'Nature' podcast editor and presenter of the award-winning BBC 4 series 'Cell' and forthcoming series 'Genome'.
  • Alice M Roberts - anatomist, biological anthropologist, author and TV presenter.
  • James Cutmore - Picture Editor, BBC 'Focus' magazine.
  • Eric Hilaire - Science and Environment Picture Editor, the 'Guardian'.
  • Robin Lovell-Badge - Head of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics, National Institute for Medical Research.
  • John Durant - Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum.
  • Catherine Draycott - Head of Wellcome Images.

About Wellcome Images

Wellcome Images allows unlimited access to a vast catalogue of medical images, manuscripts and illustrations exploring the meaning of medicine, its history and current practice.

All content has been made available under a Creative Commons Licence, which allows users to copy, distribute and display an image, provided the source is fully attributed and it is used for non-commercial purposes. Images are also available for all media and commercial uses; contact Wellcome Images for more information.

This unique collection spans everything from an oil painting of Florence Nightingale and a picture depicting Charles Darwin as an ape to a photograph of Alexander Fleming in his laboratory. The images aid teachers and researchers to illustrate themes ranging from medical and social history to contemporary healthcare and biomedical science, and to bring complex biomedical concepts to life.

About the Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust’s breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests.