When art and science combine, the results can be unfamiliar, fascinating… and beautiful.

The Beckman Institute Research Image Contest is open to members of the Beckman community, as well as researchers on campus who have used Beckman’s core facilities to take images. The winning images will be displayed for the next year in the Beckman atrium and the Director’s Conference Room. This year, they capture research from disciplines including material science and entomology, transformed into birds, ethereal glowing patterns and tire-tread-like prints.

The 2025 winners are:

Multi-Material 3D Printing of Frontally Polymerizing Materials: Blooming with Possibilities

Realizing the full potential of 3D printing requires the development of new materials with novel properties. Here, a custom-built 3D printer creates a freestanding flower with stiff (blue) and softer (green) segments. The printer precisely mixes two custom-engineered stiff and rubbery gels for “on-the-fly” material switching during the printing process. As they are extruded, these gels undergo frontal polymerization — a self-propagating reaction which requires a very small amount of energy to activate it — turning the gels solid.

Connor Armstrong was a postdoc in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the time of submission, working with Nancy Sottos. He will join the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas as an assistant professor this fall.

“Next-generation manufacturing requires not only new classes of materials, but also new methods of forming them into geometrically complex parts,” Armstrong said. “This work introduces a rapid, energy-efficient method of fabricating freestanding functional structures with tunable material properties.”

Nature’s Comb

This is a magnified spine found on the hind legs of insects called leafhoppers. Leafhoppers use their legs like a comb to spread intricate, nanoscale particles called brochosomes (the speckles visible in this image) onto their body. This produces an anti-reflective, waterproof coating which keeps the leafhoppers clean, dry and camouflaged against predators. Elizabeth Bello, a graduate student in the Department of Entomology, took this image with an environmental scanning electron microscope in Beckman's Microscopy Suite.

“Understanding how brochosomes function and learning more about their material and mechanical properties will help guide the design of new materials with applications including water harvesting technology, protective coatings and enhanced optical devices,” Bello said.

Feeling Magnified Insects: Tactile graphics

This image of a tactile graphic – which allows people to ‘feel’ imaging through touch using textures and raised surfaces – was created as an interdisciplinary collaboration between the (dis)Ability Design Studio and Beckman's Microscopy Suite.

Microscopist T. Josek took the original microscope image of a magnified fly mouth. The image was then printed on a specialized paper which swells when exposed to heat, transforming the ink into raised graphics. Deana McDonagh, a professor of industrial design and the founder of the (dis)Ability Design Studio, took the photograph of the final tactile graphic.

“By allowing the image to be ‘felt,’ we uncovered a unique opportunity to communicate science and nature through touch,” McDonagh said. “Tactile graphics offer an inclusive and engaging way to experience visual information, opening up exciting outreach possibilities for the broader community.”

An Ibis from the Lab

This ibis was created using an inexpensive, low-cost 3D printing method called  growth printing, which may someday be used to create large, polymer-based products such as wind turbine blades. Tanver Hossain, who took this image, is a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering working under Randy Ewoldt.

“Growth printing mimics natural growth to fabricate complex polymer shapes without molds,” Hossain said. “By controlling a heat-triggered reaction in liquid resin, the process enables the creation of both symmetrical and intricate forms like the ibis shown in the image.”

Whispers of a Reef Reborn

Coral reefs, which are essential for promoting biodiversity and protecting shorelines, are threatened by climate change, overfishing and pollution. Researchers are discovering the best ways to promote coral growth to restore reefs. What materials do coral larvae attach best to? Can certain additives to these materials chemically call larvae or promote their growth?

Photographer Joaquin Yus is a postdoc in Amy Wagoner Johnson’s lab researching biomaterials for this purpose. He also co-founded Colfeed4Print, a startup pioneering 3D printing materials for environmental restoration applications.

“This image was taken to show that biochemical cues can greatly enhance the settlement of new corals, so that they settle on top of each other,” Yus said. “We are involved in an NSF project in which we tune material composition and morphology to attract larvae and increase settlement rates to recover degraded coral reefs.”