Art of Research

Stories Written in Our Bones

At first glance, bone appears solid and unchanging. However, it is constantly adapting to how we move. This image shows the inside of a femoral head, the ball of the hip joint that carries us through life. Over years of walking, working, and playing, bone strengthens along the pathways used most often. These changes build an intricate internal architecture shaped by a person’s life in motion. These pathways resemble lightning across the sky, roots spreading through soil, or tree rings quietly recording a life lived. Researchers read these patterns to design implants that work with the body’s natural architecture.

Category: Promoting health and wellbeing
Name: Emily Cameron
Affiliation: PhD Student, Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Title of Photo: Stories Written in Our Bones
Location of Photo: Small-Animal Imaging Laboratory, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

2026 Art of Research Winner - Special Prize Narratives of Discovery

Free Fall – Paint Cross-Section

This photo, taken with an optical microscope, depicts a cross-section of the layers of acrylic paint on a sample of Free Fall (c. 1973), an op-art installation made by the Canadian artist Frank Barry (1913–2013). It was captured during material analysis to explore the layered structure beneath the surface of the panel painting. The cross-section reveals a complex colour stratigraphy, with up to 20 layers and colour variations—such as white, grey, purple, ochre, bright pink, and red—that would not otherwise be visible. It highlights the artist’s understanding of colour theory and a trial-and-error process.

Category: Envisioning Just Futures
Name: Axelle Chevalier-Héroux
Affiliation: MA Student, Art Conservation
Title of Photo: Free Fall – Paint Cross-Section
Location of Photo: Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

2026 Art of Research Winner - Envisioning Just Futures

Between the Rows (Video)

In the floodplains of the Cauca River valley, runaway slaves once sought refuge in lands the plantation economy deemed unfit for agriculture. Post-abolition, Black communities built small, biodiverse farms there–cacao, plantain, papaya, and fishing–establishing collective food systems sustaining local economies and ecosystems for generations. Yet, in official land-use plans, these farms rarely appear. Through participatory action research with eight Black community councils, we gather in towns like Robles and Villapaz to map what official data ignores, developing planning instruments to bring these landscapes into formal land-use decisions. In land-use planning, what is not measured often does not exist. This project supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant asks what it would take for these landscapes to count.

Name: Diana Cordoba
Affiliation: Faculty, Global Development Studies
Title of Video: Between the Rows
Location of Video: Cauca Valley, Colombia

2026 Art of Research Winner - Special Prize Research in Motion

Haze

The mind after cardiac arrest does not return unscathed. It arrives the way morning comes to still water; slowly, incompletely, shadowed by something the doctors didn't warn you about. Haze captures that threshold state. The treeline exists, the dock is there, yet everything is heavy, muted, wrong in ways that are hard to name. Your life is reflected back at you, but you can no longer feel it the way you once did. Depression, anxiety, PTSD, these are the fog that settles after the heart restarts. My research asks the first necessary question: how many people are living inside it?

Name: Dakota Gustafson
Affiliation: MD-MSc Student, Public Health Sciences & Medicine
Title of Photo: Haze
Location of Photo: Barry's Bay, Canada

2026 Art of Research Winner - Special Prize Narratives of Discovery

Uncovering the Lung Immune Response to Wildfire Smoke through Real-Time Imaging (Video)

The frequency and intensity of wildfires is increasing due to climate change. Smoke from wildfires can cause significant morbidity in people with respiratory diseases such as asthma. However, the pathobiological effects of wildfire smoke remain poorly understood. Using cutting-edge microscopes, our group is uncovering the impacts of wildfire smoke inhalation through real-time imaging of the lung. In this timelapse of a wildfire smoke-exposed mouse, green-labeled neutrophils are visualized crawling through blood vessels as cyan-labeled macrophages (which help clear inhaled smoke particles) patrol the alveoli. This research aims to reveal new mechanisms and treatment options for asthma exacerbated by wildfire smoke.

Name: Max Housefather
Affiliation: Undergraduate Student, Biomedical and Molecular Sciences
Title of Video: Uncovering the Lung Immune Response to Wildfire Smoke through Real-Time Imaging
Location of Video: Botterell Hall, Queen’s University

2026 Art of Research Winner - Promoting Health and Wellbeing

Real-time North Cascadia Tsunami Simulation (Video)

High Performance Computing is applied to many areas of societal importance. This video shows applying it to real-time Tsunami prediction. Using 512 GPUs for over 500 hours, we precompute the dynamics of a Cascadia fault earthquake and the induced tsunami generated in the ocean. These precomputations support generating accurate tsunami forecasts, using seafloor sensor data, in a fraction of a second when an earthquake occurs. This enables fast evacuation where needed and not evacuating people unnecessarily. My research in improving High Performance Systems design and applications performance directly improved the speed of this and other related simulations making them practical. Collaborators: University of Texas, Austin, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California, San Diego, and NVIDIA.

Name: Ian Karlin
Affiliation: Faculty, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Title of Video: Real-time North Cascadia Tsunami Simulation
Location of Video: Pacific Ocean, West-coast of North America at Canada-United States border

2026 Art of Research Winner - Advancing Next-Generation Computing

Still Standing

A researcher pauses under the northern lights at Scotty Creek Research Station on Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation territory, surrounded by the ghostly silhouette of trees killed by a 2022 wildfire. That event sits at the heart of my research. My work examines how wildfire and permafrost thaw affect mercury cycling and water quality in subarctic peatlands. These landscapes are growing increasingly vulnerable as wildfire frequency and intensity continue to rise across the Canadian subarctic.

Name: Lydia Morrow
Affiliation: MASc Student, Civil Engineering
Title of Photo: Still Standing
Location of Photo: Scotty Creek Research Station, on the lands of the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation, Northwest Territories, Canada

2026 Art of Research Winner - Building Inclusive and Sustainable Societies

Planets from Plants

What appears to be from a galaxy far, far away is actually the self-assembly of plant-derived cellulose nanocrystals during evaporation, captured using a polarized light microscope. As water evaporates, capillary flow drives the suspended nanocrystals toward the edge, forming the well-known coffee-ring effect. During this process, the rod-like cellulose nanocrystals spontaneously organize into twisted crystalline structures. These ordered regions produce iridescent colours that resemble astronomical structures. Understanding these assemblies is essential to my research, which aims to integrate these nanocrystals with polymers to engineer high-performance, sustainable materials.

Name: Mostafa Rammal
Affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemical Engineering
Title of Photo: Planets from Plants
Location of Photo: Biosciences Complex, Queen’s University, Canada

2026 Art of Research Winner - Delivering Materials for the Future

Earth’s Layered Legacy: From Rock to Resource

These layered sandstone waves of Antelope Canyon are shaped by millennia of water and wind. They mirror the geological strata we study to locate and extract mineral resources. As a mineral scientist, my work builds on these natural processes to responsibly explore and utilize Earth’s mineral wealth. This image is a reminder that our most valuable resources are written in the rocks around us, a timeless testament to the planet’s quiet generosity and our shared duty to steward it wisely.

Name: Tianyu Zhao
Affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Mining Engineering
Title of Photo: Earth’s Layered Legacy: From Rock to Resource
Location of Photo: Antelope Canyon, Arizona, USA

2026 Art of Research Winner - Understanding the Earth and Universe

Lithium Below, Stars Above

Lithium is an element that is key to our energy transition away from fossil fuels and plays an important role in the battery technologies for space exploration. This photo was taken during an expedition to Western Australia exploring for lithium deposits that have the potential to reshape the global economy and resolve the global climate crisis.

Category: Climate Action
Name: Dr. Christopher Spencer
Affiliation: Faculty, Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering
Title of Photo: Lithium Below, Stars Above
Location of Photo: Western Australia

2023 Art of Research Winner - Climate Action

Corneal Fingerprint

The cornea is one of the most densely innervated tissues in the human body.
The high presence of sensory nerve endings makes the cornea extremely sensitive to pain and changes at the eye’s surface. This is particularly important in detecting dryness and regulating tear production, a function which is impaired in dry eye disease.
By analyzing changes in nerve patterns and ion channel expression, we aim to further clarify the role of corneal nerves in spontaneous pain and tear production in dry eye disease.
This image shows the structural βIII-tubulin component of mouse corneal nerves at their unique convergence point.

Category: Good Health and Wellbeing
Name : Cassandra Brand
Affiliation: MSc Student, Translational Medicine
Title of Photo: Corneal Fingerprint
Location of Photo: Botterell Hall, Queen’s University

2023 Art of Research Winner - Good Health and Wellbeing

Crystallization Pattern of a Common Salt Mixture

power electronic devices such as phones, cars, and hybrid/electric vehicles. The demand for lithium used to manufacture LIBs is expected to grow 30-fold by 2040. Industry primarily extracts lithium from rock ore and brine; however, the methods used are time-intensive and costly. Therefore, we are investigating alternative extraction methods that would reduce the energy consumption, waste production, and time intensity. The image, obtained by microscopy, is of salts that crystallized after evaporation of a lithium-containing brine.

Category: Innovation for Global Impact
Name: Rachel Korchinsky
Affiliation: Graduate Student, Chemistry
Title of Photo: Crystallization Pattern of a Common Salt Mixture
Location of Photo: Electron Microscopy Facility, Queen’s University

2023 Art of Research Winner - Innovation for Global Impact

Inuit Nunangat - Where Two Worlds Collide

Nunangat is a site where differing epistemologies and cosmologies collide. The Arctic waste crisis stems from a culture of wasting that is capitalist and not Inuit.
With the delicate Arctic ecosystem degrading due to climate change, escalating resource extraction, the opening of the Northwest Passage, and the expansion of NORAD, unprecedented volumes of waste and contaminants are causing unknowable changes in life, land, sea, and ice. At the intersection of art, politics and activism, the Art and Wastes in Pangnirtung Project challenges assumptions about Inuit and exposes the pervasive nature of settler colonization as the root cause of wastes.

Category: Partnerships for Inclusivity
Name: Micky renders
Affiliation: PhD Student, School of Environmental Studies
Title of Photo: Inuit Nunangat: Where Two Worlds Collide (From the Art and Waste in Pannituuq [Pangnirtung] Project)
Location of Photo: Pannituuq (Pangnirtung), Nunavut

2023 Art of Research Winner - Partnerships for Inclusivity

Frozen in Time - Unveiling the mysteries of Turner Glacier through glaciological research in Akshayuk Pass

Glaciological research on Turner Glacier in Akshayuk Pass involves studying the physical properties and behavior of the glacier, as well as the surrounding environment, to better understand the dynamics of this glacial system.

This includes measuring glacier thickness, movement, and erosion, as well as analyzing the composition and flow of meltwater. By collecting and analyzing data over time, Queen's ICElab glaciologists can identify patterns and changes in glacial behavior, which can inform our understanding of climate change and its impact on glaciers.

The research on Turner Glacier is part of a larger effort to study glacial systems around the world and develop strategies for mitigating the effects of climate change.

Category: Research in motion
Name: Wai Yin Cheung
Affiliation: PhD student, Geography and Planning
Title of photo: Frozen in Time - Unveiling the mysteries of Turner Glacier through glaciological research in Akshayuk Pass
Location of photo: Turner Glacier, Akshayuk Pass

2023 Art of Research Winner - Research in motion

George Konana collecting ice

The Inuit practice an ongoing relationship with the land through camping, hunting, and fishing. As part of the BearWatch project, I explore how such knowledge, accumulated over many generations, and Inuit values can be ethically engaged in a community-based polar bear monitoring program. This picture is taken on one of our trips out on the land around Gjoa Haven during spring 2022. It captures George Konana collecting ice from the lake for tea. He traces ice with the right quality to give his tea a nice ‘reddish, brown’ color. At this exact moment, he cracks out a huge piece, enough for a month of tea.

Category: Creative and Sustainable Communities
Name: Saskia de Wildt
Affiliation: PhD Student School of Environmental Studies
Title of photo: George Konana collecting ice
Location of photo: Gjoa Haven, Nunavut

2022 Art of Research Winner - Creative and Sustainable Communities

The tiniest tree of life – 3D visualization of vascular networks in lungs of a mouse for COVID-19 research

COVID-19, the second pandemic of the current century, is still an ongoing global health emergency. Its complications and mortality are associated with pneumonia and alterations in the pulmonary vasculature. Acquiring 3D images of vascular trees in animal models provide a useful tool to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 in humans. In our research aimed at finding new drugs for COVID-19 under the supervision of Dr. Stephen Archer, vascular trees of a mouse were pressure perfused to maximal dilation with a radio-opaque material (barium). The heart and lungs were fixed and scanned using VECTor4CT scanner. VECTor4CT is the first tri-modality imaging system equipped with an ultra-high-resolution micro-computed tomography (µCT) scanner at Queen’s University.

Category: Good Health and Wellbeing
Name: Elahe Alizadeh
Affiliation: Staff, Medicine
Title of photo: The tiniest tree of life – 3D visualization of vascular networks in lungs of a mouse for COVID-19 research
Location of photo: Queen's CardioPulmonaryUnit (QCPU)

2022 Art of Research Winner - Good Health and Wellbeing

The SNO+ detector

The SNO+ experiment studies the fundamental properties of neutrinos. The detector consists of an active volume of 780 tonnes of liquid scintillator housed within a 12-metre diameter acrylic vessel that is held in place by ropes and viewed by an array of about 10,000 photomultiplier light detectors. In this image, taken by a camera embedded in the photomultiplier array, the detector is illuminated only by light from the clean room at the top of the vessel neck, producing a beam effect. The SNO+ experiment is currently collecting data, carrying on the work of the Nobel-prize winning Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.

Category: Innovation for Global Impact
Name: Alex Wright, Faculty
Affiliation: Faculty, Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy
Title of photo: The tiniest tree of life – 3D visualization of vascular networks in lungs of a mouse for COVID-19 research
Location of photo: SNOLAB, Sudbury, Ontario

2022 Art of Research Winner - Innovation for Global Impact

Polar bear denning

This photo demonstrates the collection of snow from inside a maternal polar bear den to collect environmental DNA. When the mother digs out the den, skin cells from her paws are abraded and stuck to the snow. Some preliminary research shows that we may be able to identify individual bears by analyzing these snow samples, information which can inform polar bear population management. My research is a pilot of ground-based non-invasive polar bear monitoring techniques, with a focus on Inuit inclusivity. Inuit Elders and polar bear hunters are key knowledge holders and collaborators throughout this research.

Category: Partnerships for Inclusivity
Name: Scott Arlidge
Affiliation: MES Student, Environmental Studies
Title of photo: Polar bear denning
Location of photo: Coral Harbour, Nunavut

2022 Art of Research Winner - Partnerships for Inclusivity

Aging with Oasis

Oasis is a program co-developed by older adults to strengthen and sustain their communities to support aging in place. The Oasis Evaluation and Expansion research team has been working with Oasis communities since 2018 to expand the program across Canada and to evaluate a number of health and wellbeing outcomes. This photo depicts a mural that represents the power of communities coming together. Each square of this mural was designed by an Oasis member from communities across Kingston and Belleville. Together, these squares form the Oasis logo, which was designed by members of the original Oasis community.

Category: Partnerships for Inclusivity
Name: Scott Riley Malvern
Affiliation: Staff, Health Services and Policy Research Institute
Title of photo: Aging with Oasis
Location of photo: Kingston, Ontario

2022 Art of Research Winner - Partnerships for Inclusivity

Crystalline acid

This photo taken with scanning electron microscopy depicts an extremely small yet precise volume (i.e., nanolitre-sized) of crystallized decanoic acid. We are using these spots of crystalline acid to extract and preconcentrate, or soak-up, chemicals of concern like opioids from wastewater samples. This preconcentration step improves our ability to monitor these chemicals. By doing so, we can improve how we detect these harmful compounds and protect local watersheds.

Category: People’s Choice
Name: Dan Reddy
Affiliation: PhD Student (Chemistry)
Title of photo: Crystalline acid
Location of photo: Chernoff Hall, Queen’s University

2022 Art of Research Winner - People's Choice

A Glance in the Brain

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.

Category: Health Sciences Prize
Name: Natalia de Menezes Lyra e Silva
Affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Neuroscience Studies
Title of Photo: A Glance in the Brain
Location of photograph: Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University

2020 Art of Research Winner - Health Sciences Prize

Propelling Research

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.

Category: Innovation, Knowledge Mobilization, and Entrepreneurship Prize
Name: Lauren Welte
Affiliation: Student (PhD), Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Title of photo: Propelling Research
Location of photo: Skeletal Observation Laboratory, Queen’s University

2020 Art of Research Winner - Innovation, Knowledge Mobilization, and Entrepreneurship Prize

Shattered Planet

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.

Category: Graduate Studies Prize
Name : Allen Tian
Affiliation: Student (MSc), Biology
Title of Photo: Shattered Planet
Location of Photo: Milburn Bay, Dog Lake, South Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada

2020 Art of Research Winner - Graduate Studies Prize

This is EPIC: Simulation Education with Patient Actors to Improve Care

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.

Category: KGHRI Prize
Name : Monakshi Sawhney
Affiliation: Faculty, School of Nursing
Title of Photo: This is EPIC: Simulation Education with Patient Actors to Improve Care
Location of Photo: Education and Research Centre, North York General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario

2020 Art of Research Winner - KGHRI Prize

Learning from the Land

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.

Category: People’s Choice
Name : Sarah Flisikowski
Affiliation: Student (MES), School of Environmental Studies
Title of Photo: Learning from the Land
Location of Photo: Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada

2020 Art of Research Winner - People's Choice

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.

Category: Community Collaborations
Name: Heshan Fernando
Affiliation: Student (PhD), Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Title of Photo: Researchers at Offroad Robotics
Location of Photo: Offroad Robotics, Jackson Hall, Queen’s University

2020 Art of Research Winner - Community Collaborations

The Wiring of the Brain

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.

Category: Art in Action
Name : Donald Brien
Affiliation: Staff, Centre for Neuroscience Studies
Title of Photo: The Wiring of the Brain
Location of Photo: Centre for Neuroscience Studies, MRI Facility, Queen’s University

2020 Art of Research Winner - Art in Action

Nature’s van Gogh

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.

Category: Out in the Field
Name: Hayden Wainwright
Affiliation: Student (MSc), Biology
Title of Photo: Nature’s van Gogh
Location of Photo: South Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada

2020 Art of Research Winner - Out in the Field

Porous Plastic Particle

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.

Category: Invisible Discoveries
Name : Ross Jansen-van Vuuren
Affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemistry
Title of Photo: Porous Plastic Particle
Location of Photo: Bruce Hall, SEM Lab, Queen’s University

2020 Art of Research Winner - Invisible Discoveries

Keep Cool Boy - The Jets Aloft in West Side Story

In a rare moment, before a Franz Kline inspired setting, the Jets achieve a perfectly synchronized lift-off in this production of West Side Story mounted in celebration of Leonard Bernstein's 100th birthday. After forty-six seasons at the Weston Playhouse in Vermont, this production also represented my 60th (and final) happy entanglement directing mostly musical theatre works on the playhouse's historical stage. Twenty-seven performers – from newly minted conservatory graduates to Broadway veterans – enabled this epic work to fly.

Category: Art in Action
Name: Tim Fort
Affiliation: Faculty, Dan School of Drama and Music
Title of Photo: Keep Cool Boy - The Jets Aloft in West Side Story
Location of Photo: Weston Playhouse, Vermont

2019 Art of Research Winner - Art in Action

A New Light

Tired of seeing roads being dug up to replace aging pipe infrastructure? Civil engineering research at Queen’s is bringing a new light to innovative, no-dig rehabilitation techniques. In this image, a UV light train is being prepared to help rehabilitate the adjacent corrugated steel pipe. The inside of the pipe has been lined with a fabric fiberglass tube embedded with UV cure resin. When the light train passes through the tube, the UV cures the resin solid and transforms the fabric tube into a solid liner. The new liner and pipe will further undergo buried experiments that will bring new insight into the structural behaviour of these systems.

Category: 125th Anniversary Prize – Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Name : Robert Cichocki
Affiliation: PhD student, Civil Engineering
Title of Photo: A New Light
Location of Photo: GeoEngineering Lab, Queen's University

2019 Art of Research Winner - 125th Anniversary Prize – Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

Nano-dendrite Collision

This scanning electron microscopy image depicts branched gold nanostructures (“nano-dendrites”) growing from planar microelectrode tips and crashing halfway, buckling upwards to create a third dimension of nano-features. The structures assemble from gold nanoparticles under the influence of an applied electric field, similar to how iron filings assemble under the influence of a magnetic field. The gold nanoparticle building blocks are 50nm in diameter – about 5000 times smaller than a human hair. The branched network formed by these nanostructures promotes incredible sensitivity for small molecule detection by means of Raman spectroscopy. At the QuSENS laboratory, and with the startup company Spectra Plasmonics Inc., we use these nanostructures to detect illicit drugs, pesticides, and explosives at ultralow and societally relevant concentrations.

Category: People’s Choice
Name: Hannah Dies
Affiliation: MD/PhD Student, Chemical Engineering
Title of Photo: Nano-dendrite Collision
Location of Photo: Dupuis Hall, Queen's University

2019 Art of Research Winner - People’s Choice

Lights, Camera, Action: Wolfie's Story

"Lights, Camera, Action: Wolfie's Story" is a photo depicting the filming of a virtual simulation game about an older gay man grieving the loss of his partner of over 30 years. The game is part of the "Make it Better for All" Developing and Evaluating Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Nursing Virtual Simulation Games project, led by Dr. Marian Luctkar-Flude, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing. This innovative CIHR-funded research project aims to develop and evaluate a series of virtual simulation games to provide education for nurses and nursing students on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI). Four full games and four mini-games will be hosted on the SOGI-Nursing website along with other resources to promote cultural humility in nursing interactions with LGBTQI2S persons. Developing the games is an artistic expression of research evidence and best practice guidelines, and a unique collaboration between nurse researchers and LGBTQI2S persons. The research project will evaluate the pedagogical value of using virtual simulation games to educate nurses and nursing students.

Category: Best Description
Name : Marian Luctkar-Flude
Affiliation: Faculty, School of Nursing
Title of Photo: Lights, Camera, Action: Wolfie's Story
Location of Photo: Glaxo Wellcome Clinical Education Centre, Queen's University

Art of Research Winner - Best Description

First Emergence

My research focuses on the effects that avian malarial parasites have on female reproductive success and offspring quality. To assess how malarial infection affects mothers and their offspring, I spent the spring and summer in the field at the Queen's University Biological Station catching female, adult red-winged blackbirds and treated them with either an antimalarial medication or a control solution. Female reproductive success was determined by looking at a variety of parameters, including incubation behaviour, which was measured using I-buttons (as seen in the photo). If experimental reduction of infection leads to higher reproductive success in females, I expected to find medicated females to be able to spend more time incubating their eggs. Our preliminary analysis shows that this was indeed the case.

Category: Out in the Field
Name: Ivana Schoepf
Affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, Biology
Title of photo: First Emergence
Location of photo: Queen's University Biological Station

2019 Art of Research Winner - Out in the Field

Women in Mathematics

Mathematical thinking is about finding patterns and structure. As a woman in the mathematics PhD program, I hope to inspire young women to follow their passion and find beauty in mathematics. At Queen’s we offer the MathQuest camp for high school girls. As captured in the photo, I am brainstorming ways to teach game theory and linear algebra. This is also a part of my research with Dr. Peter Taylor, where we work with teachers across Ontario looking for innovative ways to incorporate mathematical thinking in education. We hope to change the math curriculum by making it a more engaging, positive and memorable experience.

Category: Community Collaborations
Name: Stefanie Knebel
Affiliation: PhD student, Mathematics and Statistics
Title of photo: Women in Mathematics
Location of photo: Jeffrey Hall, Queen's University

2019 Art of Research Winner - Community Collaborations

Learning to Live (Not Walking in Line)

The history of research and scholarship in education is a record of our efforts to make sense of the world. How ought we to live? What should we learn, embrace and resist?From antiquity to anarchism, or, from Aristotle to Pink Floyd, we have known that we should never confuse schooling with education. Schools, whether they are traditional, progressive, colonial or transgressive, have all been instruments of oppression as well as resistance.

Category: 50th Anniversary Prize – Faculty of Education
Name: Theodore Christou
Affiliation: Faculty, Faculty of Education (Cross-appointment, History; Formal Affiliation, Cultural Studies)
Title of photo: Learning to Live (Not Walking in Line)
Location of photo: Wall Graffiti: Thessaloniki, Greece, 2018

2019 Art of Research Winner - 50th Anniversary Prize – Faculty of Education

Unspooling Vermeer

Wherever I go, I look for evidence of how the historical art I study impacts visual culture today. In “After Vermeer 2,” an installation from 2006 by New York artist Devorah Sperber, 5024 spools of thread strung on steel chains recreate, upside down, the famous “Girl with a Pearl Earring” painted by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer around 1665. My photo captures the viewer’s experience of looking through a glass sphere in which the image rights itself. Vermeer, whose paintings explored both optics and female experience, would surely have appreciated this perceptive transformation of his art.

Category: Art in Action
Name: Stephanie Dickey
Affiliation: Faculty, Art History and Art Conservation
Title of Photo: Unspooling Vermeer
Location of Photo: Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, USA

Art of Research Winner - Art in Action

Landscapes of Resistance

As a feminist/activist geographer, much of my doctoral research has concentrated on Indigenous and non-Indigenous communal experiences of violent development in Guatemala. An emblematic case of community conflict with, and resistance to, transnational corporate interests comes from the remote community of Lote Ocho. There, Irma Yolanda Choc Cac (pictured here) is one of eleven Indigenous Q’eqchi’ Maya women pursuing a civil court case against the Canadian mining company HudBay Minerals for sexual assaults allegedly committed during a violent eviction of her community from their ancestral lands in 2007.

Category: Out in the Field
Name : Alexandra Pedersen
Affiliation: PhD Student, Geography and Planning
Title of Photo: Landscapes of Resistance
Location of Photo: Lote Ocho, Izabal, Guatemala

2018 Art of Research Winner - Out in the Field

Inside Concord Floral

Under the heat of the lights, covered in a stranger’s clothes, surrounded by the sights and sounds of the stage – this is when the actor’s transformation comes to life. During Theatre Kingston’s production of Jordan Tannahill’s Concord Floral, the audience and actors are seated inside an abandoned greenhouse – or at least, a stage mimicking a greenhouse through set design by Sean Mulcahy and lighting by Jennifer Lennon. As both an actor and an assistant director in this production, Naseem’s research focuses on costume, lighting, set and staging, and their transformative effects on the actor’s experience as they become a character.

Category: Best Description
Name: Naseem Loloie
Affiliation: Undergraduate Student, Dan School of Drama and Music
Title of Photo: Inside Concord Floral
Location of Photo: Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Queen's University

2018 Art of Research Winner - Best Description

Exploring Worlds at Home

The Queen's Space Engineering Team constructs a Mars rover each year to compete at the international University Rover Challenge in Utah. QSET brings together over 40 students from engineering, science, commerce, and the arts to design, build, and operate the rover. The rover can autonomously navigate treacherous landscapes, collect geological data, analyze samples, and remotely operate machinery. It can be seen here gazing out into the Utah desert. The rover is a culmination of countless hours of volunteer work and generous support from both Queen’s and industry partners. The team was proud to be the top team in Canada at the 2017 competition.

Category: Community Collaborations
Name : James Xie
Affiliation: Undergraduate Student, Engineering Chemistry
Title of Photo: Exploring Worlds at Home
Location of Photo: Mars Desert Research Station, Utah

Art of Research Winner - Community Collaborations

Platinum Surface Electrochemistry

The single crystal of platinum gently hangs atop an electrolyte surface. Electrochemistry is a surface-sensitive field of research, as the composition and atomic arrangement of the electrode drastically affect its properties. Atoms in a single crystal are highly ordered, and we are able to cut and polish a crystal in such a way that we only expose one of the many possible surface arrangements. The single crystal electrode is balanced on the surface of the electrolyte to ensure that only the polished surface is exposed. These experiments give us fundamental information about electrochemical reactions, which are integral to the field of clean energy.

Category: Invisible Discoveries
Name: Derek Esau
Affiliation: PhD Student, Chemistry
Title of Photo: Platinum Surface Electrochemistry
Location of Photo: Department of Chemistry, Queen's University

2018 Art of Research Winner - Invisible Discoveries

Window on a Window to the Universe

An underwater camera mounted in the SNO+ (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory) neutrino detector captures a snapshot image when the 12-metre diameter acrylic sphere is 85% full. Viewed from below, ropes are seen crisscrossing the top of the sphere extending down (foreground), and each of the shiny cells that are visible is a 20-cm diameter super-sensitive light detector. The water-air interface inside and outside the acrylic spherical tank creates visual distortions as light refracts at the optical boundary. Once full, the upgraded detector turns on in Fall 2016, ten years after the original SNO detector completed its Nobel-prize winning studies.

Name : Mark Chen
Affiliation: Faculty, Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy
Title of Photo: Window on a Window to the Universe
Location of Photo: SNOLAB, Sudbury, Ontario

2017 Art of Research Winner

Magdalene

For over 550 years, the passionate Magdalene has been running with her veil streaming behind, screaming, to the body of Jesus, dead on the ground. This life-size statue, originally painted to mimic flesh and clothes, pushes the limits of the medium, terracotta. Renaissance men and women could walk among Niccolo dell’Arca’s sculptures, feeling as if they were present at this terrible moment in Christian history. Dr. Una D’Elia’s research focuses on such living sculptures, stories of statues coming to life, and people touching, dressing, attacking, and generally treating sculptures as if they were alive.

Name: Una D’Elia
Affiliation: Faculty, Art History and Art Conservation
Title of Photo: Magdalene
Location of Photo: Church of Santa Maria della Vita, Bologna

2017 Art of Research Winner

Aldonza

This moment arrives at the end of the staging for the musical number "Aldonza" from The Man of La Mancha – one of two musicals Dr. Tim Fort directed at the Weston Playhouse in Vermont in the summer of 2016. Many of the show's creative team are Broadway veterans, including the designer and the performer playing Aldonza – whose character is pictured ignoring the aggressions of the muleteers as they sing to her in this musical version of the Don Quixote story. Dr. Fort’s research interests lie in lighting and staging, and he has been a producing director at the Weston Playhouse for the past 30 years.

Name: Tim Fort
Affiliation: Faculty, Dan School of Drama and Music
Title of Photo: Aldonza
Location of Photo: Mainstage, Weston Playhouse, Vermont

2017 Art of Research Winner

5000m High Sunset in the Andes

Lake Sibinacocha is the 22nd highest lake in the world. Storms from the Amazon push up over the mountains, depositing snow on icecaps feeding high elevation lakes. Andean societies are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climatic change on freshwater systems. Climate change will exacerbate water quality and quantity problems affecting millions of people. Warming in the Andes is occurring at rates nearly twice the global average. The effects on Andean lakes and ecosystems remain largely unknown, despite their importance to people and biodiversity. The objective of Grooms’s research is to assess the impacts of climate change on lakes.

Name: Chris Grooms
Affiliation: Staff, Biology
Title of Photo: 5000m High Sunset in the Andes
Location of Photo: Lake Sibinacocha, Cusco, Peru

2017 Art of Research Winner

Evelyn Mitchell and her “Burler”

Through oral history and archival research, the Swamp Ward and Inner Harbour History Project is revealing the twentieth-century history of two of the oldest neighbourhoods in Kingston, Ontario. Evelyn Mitchell worked at Hield Brothers Woolen Mill in the 1950s when she first arrived in Kingston from Yorkshire. In her interview, she describes in great detail the process by which she did “invisible mending” on the cloth coming out of the looms, picking out and pushing through loose threads. Here she displays the tool she used, a “burler,” which she has saved to this day.

Name: Laura Murray
Affiliation: Faculty, English Language and Literature (Affiliated with Cultural Studies)
Title of Photo: Evelyn Mitchell and her “Burler”
Location of Photo: Kingston, Ontario

2017 Art of Research Winner

Phantasie Ist Alles

Although I am an English major, I also study other languages and was fascinated by this piece of graffiti that I found on Museum Island in Berlin. Translated from German to English, it says, “Imagination is everything, it is the preview to the coming events of life.” This was said by Albert Einstein, and while his discipline is physics, different from mine, we both see the beauty of creativity. His creativity is in the stars, and mine is in language and literature. Arts and science are bound together in this short expression. A treasure waiting on Museum Island for me to embrace and understand.

Name: Julia Partington
Affiliation: Undergraduate Student, English Language and Literature
Title of Photo: Phantasie Ist Alles
Location of Photo: Museum Island, Berlin, Germany

2017 Art of Research Winner

Polypyrrole

The film morphology of electrochemically synthesized conducting polymers is widely dependent on electropolymerisation conditions. Some factors, like type of anions, solvent, and deposition rate, have a great influence on the final polymer quality and morphology. The SEM image shows electrochemically synthesized polypyrrole film on platinum electrode. Polypyrrole has high electrical conductivity and good environmental stability and has potential applications such as sensors, electrodes for rechargeable batteries, corrosion-protecting materials, electrochromic devices, and membranes.

Name: Danesh Roudini
Affiliation: Faculty, Bader International Study Centre - BISC
Title of Photo: Polypyrrole
Location of Photo: Kingston University, UK

2017 Art of Research Winner

Tulugak on the Crucifix

Dr. Norman Vorano was conducting historical research with Inuit elders in Nunavut in April and May of 2016. One woman recounted the loss of cultural traditions as a result of the changes that happened during the twentieth century, particularly from residential schools, the missionaries, and the waves of southerners who flooded into the Arctic after the Second World War. After they broke for lunch, Vorano stepped outside. The white sky was indistinguishable from the ground. He walked past a towering crucifix erected behind the Catholic Church, on an imposing hill overlooking the community. A raven flew down from the ethereal sky, perched on the Crucifix, and began vocalizing. For Western culture, the raven is a harbinger of death. For Inuit culture, tulugak – raven – is a tricky fellow that symbolizes creation.

Name: Norman Vorano
Affiliation: Faculty, Art History and Art Conservation
Title of photo: Tulugak on the Crucifix
Location of photo: Pond Inlet, Nunavut

2017 Art of Research Winner

Gemini Mirror Reflections

The Gemini telescope and dome are ablaze in the setting sun's golden light. The reflections on the 8-m monolithic primary mirror are especially intricate and distorted. The shadow of the extinct 4200m Mauna Kea volcano can also be seen in the background upon a sea of clouds over the city of Hilo. The vertical shutters around the dome are usually opened at sunset to ensure that the inside and outside temperatures are the same throughout the night for greater image stability. Dr. Courteau has made extensive use of this telescope, and its twin in Chile, since his arrival at Queen's in 2004.

Name: Stéphane Courteau
Affiliation: Faculty, Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy
Title of Photo: Gemini Mirror Reflections
Location of Photo: Mauna Kea, Hawaii

2016 Art of Research Winner

In Search of Byzantium

As an educational historian, my search for Byzantium (330-1453) led me to the remote monastic communities of Mount Athos. Since the 9th century, 20 Orthodox Christian communities have developed and currently reside there. These monasteries have preserved libraries, with holdings between 15,000 and 60,000 monographs. While access to Athos is highly restricted, typically to four days, I spent 12 days here working in five monastic libraries. I held and photographed several dozen texts that were otherwise ‘lost to the world’, and I lived the monastic life throughout my time spent there. Here is the monastery of Simonopetra. The library is in the lower level, near the promontory’s edge.

Name: Theodore Christou
Affiliation: Faculty, Faculty of Education (Cross-Appointment, History)
Title of photo: In Search of Byzantium
Location of photo: Simonopetra Monastery, Mount Athos

2016 Art of Research Winner

Santa Fina

Pietro Torrigiani, a competitor of Michelangelo, carved this bust of a saint out of marble and then painted it so that blood seems to run in this determined young girl's veins. This lively piece, made over five hundred years ago, is an example of the kind of naturalistic sculptures that have been little studied, as most scholars focus on monochrome "high art" statuary. The sculptures I am studying were not confined to museums, but were a part of the social lives of Italian men and women, who talked to, touched, kissed, worshipped, attacked, and dressed sometimes uncannily realistic coloured sculptures.

Name: Una D’Elia
Affiliation: Faculty, Art History and Art Conservation
Title of photo: Santa Fina
Location of photo: Musei Civici, San Gimignano, Italy

2016 Art of Research Winner

The Last Tree

CCNF15: Clear Creek North Forest #15, otherwise known as the last tree. After three summers of field work and countless hours spent hiking to various study sites situated in the Kluane Region of the Yukon, Katherine finally takes the last tree core she will need to complete her project analyzing alpine vegetation dynamics. Using an increment borer to drill a small hole near the base of each tree, Katherine extracts a core which we store inside straws until returning to the lab. The annual growth rings along each core can be measured to gather information on growth and climate.

Name: Courtenay Jacklin
Affiliation: Undergraduate Student, Biology
Title of photo: The Last Tree
Location of photo: Southwest Yukon

2016 Art of Research Winner

Buried Alive

This photo was taken during my fieldwork, 2.5km underground in a platinum mine owned by Impala Platinum in Rustenburg, South Africa. Rather than a unique depiction, this photo is representative of the industry as a whole. It demonstrates the harsh realities mine workers face, subject to social, environmental, and economic challenges. Day-shift workers may spend up to six months at a time without ever seeing sunlight, their lives literally passing them by. Few opportunities exist for these men and women to break free of the dark, unforgiving platinum industry. The “X” is symbolic of this eventual cause of death, either directly or indirectly.

Name: Melanie Jansen
Affiliation: Graduate Student, School of Environmental Studies
Title of photo: Buried Alive
Location of photo: Impala Platinum Mine, Shaft #14, Rustenburg, South Africa

2016 Art of Research Winner

Leaving home

My focus is cancer cell invasion and migration. This spheroid of cells is embedded in a 3D protein matrix and fluorescently stained for 3 proteins. Individual cells can be seen radiating away on all sides. The cells use integrin (red) and actin (green) to pull on the protein matrix and move, while cadherin (blue), binds and holds cells together within the spheroid. Cadherin normally holds clumps of cells together and allows them to form structures such as tissues and organs. This picture shows how invading cells lose their cadherin and express large amounts of integrin and actin, and it demonstrates some of the protein expression changes that cancer cells undergo which allow them to invade away from a tumour.

Name: Eric Y Lian
Affiliation: PhD Student, Pathology and Molecular Medicine
Title of photo: Leaving home
Location of photo: A microscope slide

2016 Art of Research Winner

Borders. What borders?

The iconic Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, once remarked that “the only thing Cypriot is the donkey”. He wanted to underline that Cyprus was permanently divided between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. He was wrong of course, as this photo from Cyprus’s Apostolos Andreas Monastery shows. There are also 'lots' of Cypriot cats who can wander freely between the Turkish and Greek zones in spite of the barbed wire and thousands of armed soldiers. These are “vanguard felines”. My work on power-sharing in Cyprus is aimed at helping their two-legged counterparts to follow in their wake.

Name: John McGarry
Affiliation: Faculty, Political Studies
Title of photo: Borders. What borders?
Location of photo: Apostolos Andreas Monastery, North-east Cyprus

2016 Art of Research Winner

Perfusion of Light

This perfusion array allows quick changing of solutions. Solutions with different drugs are applied while recording the bioelectrical activity of nerve cells. The handmade array, roughly the size of a matchbook and very fragile, is essential for determining drug effectiveness at the level of a single protein’s function. I used a dual-light source to construct it using fine tubing, super-glue, wax, and half-millimetre glass barrels.

Name: Raymond Sturgeon
Affiliation: PhD Student, Biomedical and Molecular Sciences
Title of photo: Perfusion of Light
Location of photo: Botterell Hall, Queen's University

2016 Art of Research Winner

Coded, I Am

"Coded, I Am" is part of a larger research creation project that looks at preemptive surveillance strategies in North America. It is a self-portrait of an artist immersed in tattoo QR codes. The QR codes – when scanned – direct the viewer to Google Earth images of CSIS and NSA intelligence sites. The photograph not only shows an artist absorbed by her research, but it is a representation of how users rely on third party sites such as Google Earth in their everyday lives, regardless of the risk of data mining and surveillance. The codes shift the surveillance gaze by giving viewers the tools to look at the institutions that are normally doing the ‘surveilling’.

Name: Stéfy McKnight
Affiliation: Graduate Student, Cultural Studies
Title of photo: Coded, I Am
Location of photo: Kingston, Ontario

2016 Art of Research Winner