The Art of Research: Photo Gallery 2020
The Art of Research photo contest is an opportunity for Queen’s faculty, students, staff, and alumni to showcase their research, scholarly, and artistic work. The competition is aimed at providing a creative and accessible method of sharing and celebrating the ground-breaking research being done by current and past Queen’s community members.
Under the Umbrella
Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin
On a very hot day, I went to the Adelabu Market in Ibadan, Nigeria, to meet Sarah. Several phone calls later, we found each other. She brought me inside a nearly abandoned plaza. “Less noisy,” she said. We climbed up to the highest floor. During the interview, she told me her livelihood as a market woman funded her children’s education. Rain or shine, she is at the market every day, under her umbrella. When we finished the interview, I looked down. What a view! As I snapped a photo, I wondered: “What are the stories of the other people under the umbrellas?”
Location of photograph:
Ibadan, Nigeria
Affiliation:
Faculty, Gender Studies; Geography and Planning
Submission Year:
2019-20
A Glance in the Brain
Natalia de Menezes Lyra e Silva
The primate brain is highly specialized, allowing us an incredible range of experiences. This microscopic photo captures cells within a brain region, the hippocampus, involved with learning and memory. Every lived experience that we are able to remember has boosted the formation of new connections in our brains. These connections are affected in diseases that impair memory, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we can observe cells involved with the brain inflammatory response. These cells are upregulated in the brains of AD patients. This technique allows us to better understand how our brains work and how they are altered by diseases.
Location of photograph:
Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University
Affiliation:
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Centre for Neuroscience Studies
Submission Year:
2019-20
Nature’s van Gogh
Hayden Wainwright
Algal blooms appear as smears of green slime from the ground, but are beautiful pieces of abstract art from an aerial view, painted by wind and sunlight. My research takes me to lakes on the Canadian Shield affected by blooms, where I photograph them with a drone while assistants help me collect water samples. By uncovering when, where, and why they appear, we hope to restore some of Canada’s most beautiful lakes to their pristine states.
Location of photograph:
South Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada
Affiliation:
Graduate Student, Biology
Submission Year:
2019-20
This is EPIC: Simulation Education with Patient Actors to Improve Care
Monakshi Sawhney
Simulation education, using standardized patient actors, is a unique way to provide education in health care settings to practicing clinicians. It is an opportunity to practice assessment skills and critical thinking in a safe environment that mimics the patient care setting. Our team implemented this concept at a hospital in Toronto, with a focus on researching the outcomes of a simulation intervention for nurses who care for patients receiving epidural analgesia for pain management after surgery. This photograph depicts the real-to-life patient care environment that was created for this study.
Location of photograph:
Education and Research Centre, North York General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario
Affiliation:
Faculty, School of Nursing
Submission Year:
2019-20
The Wiring of the Brain
Donald Brien
An example of Diffusion Spectrum Imaging (DSI) from Queen’s new Prisma Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Some of the most beautiful images generated by MRI are created by imaging the diffusion (movement) of water throughout the brain. From this diffusion, we can generate maps of the neuron connections that are responsible for carrying messages from one area of the brain to another. Seen here, they are coded by direction, such that blue tracts move from foot to head, red tracts move from left to right in the head, and green tracts move from the front to the back of the head. There are 30,000 tracts displayed in this image. By adulthood, the average person has ~160,000 km total length of these tracts.
Location of photograph:
Centre for Neuroscience Studies, MRI Facility, Queen’s University
Affiliation:
Staff, Centre for Neuroscience Studies
Submission Year:
2019-20
Learning from the Land
Sarah Flisikowski
The transmission and documentation of traditional knowledge and skills is of great importance to Inuit, especially considering the continuing social, environmental, and economic changes in the Arctic. I am examining how Inuit traditional knowledge is generated and shared through a case study of an existing project in Ulukhaktok called Nunamin Illihakvia, which means "learning from the land" in Inuinnaqtun. Participants from other Inuvialuit communities were invited to travel to Ulukhaktok in February 2020 to participate in cultural activities that promoted discussion on what a cultural learning program should include. This photo shows our first trip out on Queen's Bay together.
Location of photograph:
Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada
Affiliation:
Graduate Student, School of Environmental Studies
Submission Year:
2019-20
Porous Plastic Particle
Ross Jansen-van Vuuren
The photograph is of a water-swollen hydrogel particle created in our chemistry laboratory, taken with an instrument called a Scanning Electron Microscope, which allows us to zone in and see important details on the surface of the hydrogel. A hydrogel is essentially a plastic material that is able to absorb very large volumes of water (up to 800 times its weight!) – much like a baby diaper, swelling as it does so. From the image, the surface of the hydrogel is seen to possess large, distinctive pores, which help us understand how and why hydrogels absorb so much liquid.
Location of photograph:
Bruce Hall, SEM Lab, Queen’s University
Affiliation:
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Chemistry
Submission Year:
2019-20
Shattered Planet
Allen Tian
The impact of human activity on our planet is often difficult to see in the moment, and requires a long-term, overlooking, view. This photo is a drone panorama of my field site on the Rideau Canal System, where I investigate the impact of human activity on aquatic ecosystems, particularly the development of toxic algal blooms. Activities such as fishing, property development and farming have fragmented and altered this ecosystem, and we need a holistic, broader view to piece together how we can protect our delicate, beautiful, world.
Location of photograph:
Milburn Bay, Dog Lake, South Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada
Affiliation:
Graduate Student, Biology
Submission Year:
2019-20
Propelling Research
Lauren Welte
Our feet make contact with the ground millions of times within our lifetime, yet we still do not completely understand how they function. Using dynamic X-ray video, we image foot bones in ways we could only previously imagine. Recent work has questioned several popular theories about soft tissue function in the arch. Ongoing research aims to understand healthy foot function, to better inform treatments for foot pain. This research has the capacity to propel our understanding of foot function forward.
Location of photograph:
Skeletal Observation Laboratory, Queen’s University
Affiliation:
PhD Student, Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Submission Year:
2019-20
Researchers at Offroad Robotics
Heshan Fernando
A group of multidisciplinary engineering researchers with expertise in mining and construction applications, mechanical and mechatronics systems, as well as electrical and computer engineering collaborate to develop the next generation of field and mobile robots.
Location of photograph:
Jackson Hall, Queen’s University
Affiliation:
PhD Student, Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Submission Year:
2019-20
