At NC State, we discuss lots about “Think and Do.” But behind this motto is commonly the day by day work of observing and analyzing as a part of the analysis course of. Creating a visible file of this work is crucial to studying and discovery — and exactly what the Envisioning Research contest proudly spotlights.
This yr, we’re celebrating 43 contest winners and honorable mentions who submitted charming photos, graphics and movies of their analysis throughout quite a lot of topic areas. Their entries highlighted how communities interact pure assets — from tribal leaders tackling native forestry points in India to a researcher amassing soil samples to check microbiomes in Beaufort, North Carolina. They introduced invisible constructions to gentle, revealing candy potato roots that resemble dancing figures and mind analysis the place single-cell interactions underneath fluorescence seem like elegant shapes of deep indigo. One pc graphic revealed an ocean wave’s shifting boundaries between liquid and vapor in violet and magenta, whereas one other modeled a supergiant star ripping matter from the solar. Winning movies included how a robotic would possibly help with labor on a poultry farm, or how fruit flies start courtship songs by making fast, rhythmic actions with tiny wings.
The 2026 Envisioning Research contest acquired a file variety of submissions, with 274 entries in complete. As ever, we’re thrilled to see and showcase how our neighborhood paperwork studying and discovery — impactful methods we Think and Do at NC State.
The contest is a collaborative effort involving NC State’s Office of Research and Innovation, the Graduate School, the NC State University Libraries, the Office of Undergraduate Research and University Communications and Marketing. The Envisioning Research contest is open to undergraduates, graduate college students, postdoctoral researchers, college and employees.
A whole record of winners, runners-up and honorable mentions is beneath. You can see high-res variations of every entry, in addition to captions about every picture, by clicking on a profitable entry’s identify. You can discover a gallery of this yr’s winners here.
Faculty/Staff Graphics, 1st Place. Marsha Gordon and Robin Vuchnich. As the naturalist and thinker Henry David Thoreau noticed, all of us want “the tonic of wildness” for our collective survival in addition to to nourish our spirits. This picture is a botanical portrait composed of pressed and preserved plant petals, leaves and stems — gathered from the Gregg Museum of Art’s pollinator backyard as an adjunct to the interdisciplinary “In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers” exhibition on the Gregg Museum — which mixed artwork and science to replicate on environmental change at a turning level in Earth’s historical past.Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, 1st Place. Laura Arango. In the temperate forests of Oaxaca, Mexico, oak timber create cover areas that assist a wealthy range of epiphytes. This picture exhibits how daylight filters by the branches, and bromeliads and orchids deliver this hidden world to life, weaving a radiant tapestry of colour and biodiversity throughout the forest cover. The analysis — which is being performed in the neighborhood of Santa Marías Jaltianguis, Sierra Norte, the place frequent land-use practices form the forest construction — explores epiphyte range throughout three habitat sorts: patch cuts, buffer zones and conservation areas, to know how their presence and patterns change throughout the panorama.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, Honorable Mention. Jacob Leff. Cellpose-SAM is a model of the favored Cellpose picture segmentation framework — a deep studying mannequin skilled particularly to establish and description cells in microscopy photos — that integrates Segment Anything Model (SAM) to enhance segmentation of cells and different organic constructions. The picture above depicts the “flows” that the Cellpose-SAM convolutional neural community makes use of to robotically differentiate and tag mobile constructions within the progress and formation of hydrocarbon detonation. This result’s post-processed from a 2D computational fluid dynamics simulation in an 8-centimeter channel, with the wave propagating from left to proper. Cellpose-SAM permits gaseous detonations to be studied in a quicker, extra reproducible approach, which is helpful for modeling propulsion and security methods.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, 2nd Place. Kenneth Geisert. The Amazon rainforest faces elevated threats from deforestation, local weather change and habitat degradation. Researchers in professor Gareth Powell’s Insect Evolution Lab, in collaboration with the Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon, performed analysis spanning a number of initiatives at Finca Las Piedras Research Station in Peru — geared toward understanding the pure world by the lens of bugs. Over the course of per week, researchers arrange non-invasive insect traps (proven above) to gather molecular-grade specimens for genetic and morphological analyses. Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, 1st Place. Stephen Colleran. This picture would possibly seem like a chunk of summary artwork, but it surely’s truly a picture of a few of the thinnest supplies on the planet. These two-dimensional supplies are created with merely a substrate, bulk crystal and a few magic tape that may be present in any classroom. The flakes on this picture are about 60 nanometers thick — or 1,000 instances thinner than a human hair.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, Honorable Mention. Alexandria Brown. Through picture evaluation methods, root methods will be remoted from the background to quantify progress patterns, branching construction and total morphology. This picture captures the foundation structure of a candy potato slip, digitally processed to focus on its structural kind. The root silhouette occurs to resemble somebody dancing — an surprising inventive second rising from scientific information. While visually putting, the picture represents ongoing analysis targeted on understanding how propagation circumstances affect root uniformity and growth. By analyzing root construction throughout remedies, this work helps improved propagation practices and extra constant plant institution.
Faculty/Staff Photography, Honorable Mention. Madaris Serrano Perez. Soil microbiomes, communities of various microorganisms dwelling within the soil, are drivers of soil well being — and finding out them may open the door to extra sustainable agricultural practices. The picture above exhibits a researcher amassing samples at a soybean subject in Beaufort, North Carolina, so as to examine agricultural soil microbiomes. In Perez’s extension program and analysis lab, quite a lot of initiatives are underway to look into microbial range because it pertains to agricultural practices and the altering surroundings.Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Julia Brzezicki. Habitat loss and fragmentation, mixed with excessive elephant densities, enhance competitors for assets with close by human populations — which results in battle. This analysis focuses on understanding wild elephant habits and genetics, notably the elements that affect human-elephant battle. The {photograph} exhibits Brzezicki amassing behavioral information on grownup Asian elephants in Minneriya National Park in Sri Lanka. Conducted in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Elephant Project, Brzezicki’s analysis goals to tell native mitigation methods by figuring out why some elephants usually tend to crop raid than others and to advertise coexistence between elephants and people.
Faculty/Staff Photography, 2nd Place. Heather Frantz. Uncovering the main points of parasite life cycles, notably with specimens collected over a number of many years, permits scientists to raised perceive present and historic ecosystem well being. This picture exhibits Ph.D. candidate Alex Nelson looking for freshwater snails on floating vegetation in Yates Millpond. Nelson doesn’t examine the snails themselves; reasonably, the analysis facilities on trematode (flatworm) parasites that use snails as first intermediate hosts — earlier than happening to contaminate vertebrate species resembling snakes. In the lab, Nelson investigates which parasite species infect which snake species by dissecting roadkill and preserved snakes from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, 2nd Place. Byeunggon Kim. Society wants sustainable options for eradicating microplastics from our waterways so as to defend the well being of worldwide aquatic ecosystems — and the protection of ingesting water. This electron microscope picture exhibits a spherical microplastic particle trapped by dendritic particles with architectured constructions which have tree-like branches, which act as microscopic webs. Using pure forces, the branches wrap round and firmly seize the plastic. By making use of superior supplies science to environmental cleanup, these superior microscopic nets supply a robust strategy to filter out pollution and defend our ecosystems — serving to protect biodiversity and cleaner oceans for future generations. Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Carlos Morales. Aspergillus niger, a standard, widespread fungus, causes sure fruit and veggies to develop black mildew. This picture exhibits Aspergillus niger underneath a microscope, rising from contaminated candy potato tissue. Recovering the identical fungus from this lesion helped affirm it triggered the illness — turning an invisible plant an infection into seen proof. This analysis supported efforts to guard roots in storage and scale back losses for Ugandan farmers by serving to establish the fungus accountable for candy potato rot.
Undergraduate Student Graphics, 1st Place. Fiona Wolfe-Roberts. Physics can assist us perceive and recognize nature’s seemingly mysterious patterns. In this picture, two stars sure by gravity orbit one another within the binary system Vela-X1 — and a neutron star two instances the mass of the solar rips matter off its supergiant companion. The analysis graphic fashions the supergiant’s environment because it leaks mass, inflicting highly effective velocity flows.
Faculty/Staff Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Liv Borges.Streblospio benedicti is a standard coastal species of plankton that may now be discovered all through the world. The species is commonly used as a bioindicator to evaluate the well being of its surroundings. This picture exhibits planktotrophic Streblospio benedicti larvae stained with an antibody to evaluate the place chitin — proven in purple — has developed.Undergraduate Student Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Audrey Johnson. Previous analysis into the essential neurodevelopmental protein cyfip2 has proven that mutants with out functioning cyfip2 are hyperactive to auditory stimuli in comparison with fish with functioning cyfip2 (wild-type fish). This picture depicts a zebrafish mannequin used for a examine targeted on enhancing our understanding of the auditory system. The goal of this analysis is to research the place within the auditory pathway variations happen, constructing upon fundamental science ideas of the auditory system.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, Honorable Mention. Alp Tezbasaran. Inside a boiling reactor or a gasoline injector, the boundary the place liquid ends and vapor begins is consistently shifting — which makes monitoring immediately each bubble and droplet unattainable. This picture visualizes a workaround known as the “level-set” technique, which builds a steady mathematical subject throughout the area — a easy panorama that quietly carries each floor inside it. From this single map, computer systems simulate boiling, atomization and the breath of an ocean wave. Each glowing ring is the boundary of a person bubble or droplet; the horizontal seam splits vapor (high) from liquid (backside) throughout the entire scene. The simulation recovers all interfaces in a single clear stroke, with out ever drawing them. Radiating bands hint distance to the closest floor: nearer means brighter, farther sinks towards darkish.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Zehta Fazler. CRISPR-Cas9 permits geneticists to make exact, focused modifications to a plant’s DNA. This analysis focuses on rising and deciding on maize crops edited utilizing CRISPR. In the sphere, researchers manually pollinate crops so as to forestall the unfold of edited genes to different crops. This image exhibits a graduate pupil hand-pollinating gene-edited maize. By finding out how particular genes affect plant efficiency, the analysis goals to assist breeding efforts that produce dependable yields whereas minimizing environmental influence — to advance a extra sustainable future in agriculture. Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Mohammed Kayes Patoary. Nature is the final word architect, crafting every part from skeletal constructions to intricate shells. This micrograph captures crystal patterns grown utilizing a way that mimics these very organic processes. The analysis explores how calcium-based minerals will be guided to develop in managed methods, very like the formation of bones (calcium phosphate) and shells (calcium carbonate). By sustaining minerals in a singular, liquid-like state, it’s doable to direct their progress earlier than they harden into their remaining kind.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Sierra McMurry. To enhance conservation efforts, researchers examine the relationships animals have with their fundamental sources of meals. This picture, taken with a digital camera lure, exhibits a red-tailed hawk catching a garter snake. Using each digital camera and seed traps, McMurry investigates how tree seeds like acorns and pinecones influence mammal communities.
Undergraduate Student Photography, 1st Place. Brock Davis. Students taking a common entomology course (ENT 425) at NC State got an task to {photograph} and doc 25 households and eight orders of bugs. This picture exhibits one of many favourite bugs Davis photographed and documented — the Differential Grasshopper. Faculty/Staff Photography, Honorable Mention. Abolhassan Pishahang. Living methods can contribute to adaptive, responsive design. Pictured above is a bio-fabricated scaffold — developed on the NC State Crafts Center — designed to assist the expansion of dwelling materials inside a computationally generated construction. The scaffold acts each as a structural framework and as a medium for cultivation, enabling the emergence of bio-composite surfaces over time. This analysis demonstrates how design can transfer past static supplies towards dynamic methods that combine organic progress as an lively element. Developed for bio-lighting functions, the porous lattice was fabricated to host natural matter, permitting seeds to germinate and develop immediately inside the kind.
Faculty/Staff Microscopy, 2nd Place. Yasaman Ghaemi. To determine how neurological illnesses start, it’s essential to first perceive how mind cells develop and set up throughout early growth. This picture captures neurons and glial cells, together with astrocytes, weaving collectively to kind the three-dimensional construction of the mouse mind cortex. The elegant shapes and interactions create a dynamic mobile panorama — and what emerges is a vivid mosaic of life, the place every cell contributes to the sweetness and complexity of the mind. In the picture above, an immunostained mind part is magnified underneath a microscope utilizing light-sheet fluorescence. By revealing processes on the single-cell stage, the analysis may assist new remedies and enhance mind well being.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, 2nd Place. Elias Zauscher. Water distribution methods ship handled water to residential, business and industrial shoppers. To higher serve their inhabitants base, although, water utilities want system fashions — which will be expensive and time- consuming to create. This picture exhibits a small a part of the coaching dataset the researchers used to develop Al strategies for producing distribution community fashions. Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Sarah Cochran-Murray. A latest anthracnose illness outbreak has North Carolina pepper growers involved. Since its first sighting in 2024, experiences of the illness have tripled. Colletotrichum scovillei — a brand new, aggressive fungus — is spreading all through pepper fields throughout the state. The new species of anthracnose illness (pictured above) may cause heavy yield losses as a result of it infects younger crops and thrives despite fashionable administration methods.
Undergraduate Student Photography, 2nd Place. Gabrielle Schoeffel. When investigating how completely different knitted jacquard materials examine in look and dimension when made utilizing completely different machine settings, the researchers discovered that even when the identical dimension was programmed, cloth samples usually got here out in several shapes and dimensions. They ran many checks to learn the way cloth construction impacts remaining dimension and look. However, reasonably than discard the abundance of additional samples used throughout testing, the researchers remodeled them right into a quilt (pictured above) — which visually represents the analysis in a artistic approach.
Undergraduate Student Microscopy, 1st Place. Sarah Siegle. Corals might inhabit lower than 1% of the ocean ground — but they’re a necessary supply of meals and habitat for roughly 25% of all marine species. Unfortunately, 30-50% of coral reefs have already been misplaced — and plenty of extra are in danger as a result of local weather change, air pollution, habitat destruction and ocean acidification. This picture of the species Orbicella faveolata exhibits vivid clusters of potential coral related microbial aggregates, which doubtlessly home Endozoicomonas. The globally distributed micro organism Endozoicomonas — which has the potential to strengthen coral immune methods, cycle essential vitamins and assist corals reply to stress — is the main focus of Siegle’s analysis. Undergraduate Student Microscopy, 2nd Place. Elijah Cornatzer. Granulomatous Meningoencephalomyelitis (GME) is an incurable, usually deadly inflammatory illness that happens within the brains of canine. This picture exhibits the Hippocampal part from a canine identified with GME. The explanation for GME just isn’t absolutely understood, so this analysis regarded for traits seen in additional broadly understood mind illnesses by utilizing established markers that establish hallmark pathology for these illnesses. The picture above exhibits a pattern wherein the researchers regarded for markers related to Alzheimer’s illness by staining for Tau (a protein related to AD) and Astrocytes (a cell related to neuronal irritation).
Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Arindam Mandal. In the sphere, analysis isn’t all the time about large machines and spreadsheets; usually, it’s in regards to the quiet, microscopic battles taking place proper underneath our nostril. This image of a caterpillar exemplifies a relentless, if uninvited, companion in day by day scouting. While the researchers’ focus is on soil physics and plant well being, these tiny residents function a reminder that agriculture is a dwelling, respiration ecosystem.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Fatima Ezzahra Allam. Cellulose, derived from pure sources like crops, can set up itself on the nanoscale to kind intricate and extremely ordered patterns. This picture reveals the microscopic construction of a skinny movie produced from cellulose nanocrystals mixed with a polymer known as Jeffamine. By mixing in Jeffamine, the researchers created a versatile materials wherein these tiny constructing blocks work together and rearrange — producing distinctive textures noticed underneath microscopy. Nanoscale preparations play a vital position in figuring out a fabric’s properties, resembling energy, flexibility and responsiveness to the surroundings. This work explores how sustainable, bio-based substances will be engineered at very small scales to create superior purposeful supplies. Undergraduate Student Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Thomas Sutton. Cells exactly management gene expression by regulating messenger RNA, the molecule that carries genetic info from DNA to provide proteins. This analysis particularly focuses on a gaggle of RNA-binding proteins that coordinate these complicated regulatory networks — and the way these mechanisms will be harnessed to develop new therapeutics. Using the mannequin organism Caenorhabditis elegans, the researchers examined the molecular pathways concerned in translation initiation, a basic course of that additionally happens in human cells. The picture above exhibits goal proteins tagged with fluorescent markers utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 genome enhancing to visualise the RNA-binding proteins’ exercise in dwelling organisms providing an interesting window into the cell’s interior workings.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, 1st Place. Sergei Rigin. This picture depicts the simulation of a magnetic nanoparticle coated with versatile polymer chains. When uncovered to a rotating magnetic subject, the nanoparticle spins — inflicting the connected polymer layer to swirl, twist and wrap round itself like a tiny twister on the nanoscale.
Undergraduate Student Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Malcolm Albergo-Radisch. The human physique is at peak regenerative capability throughout embryonic growth, which is ruled by a posh interaction of molecular indicators. This picture, taken at 30 days of gestation, exhibits progenitor cells (visualized in inexperienced) exactly localized inside the annulus fibrosus — a hoop that’s accountable for the mechanical integrity of an intervertebral disc. Utilizing a gene-edited pig mannequin, a really perfect translational bridge to human biology, the researchers mapped the spatial distribution of LGR5+ cells inside a growing intervertebral disc. This work offers the organic framework essential to develop focused therapies for intervertebral disc restore.Faculty/Staff Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Rebeca Castro. The kidney’s job is to filter waste from our blood, however in tubulointerstitial nephropathy, that system begins to interrupt down. This picture exhibits a paper-thin slice of a diseased kidney, stained with a particular dye to disclose its interior workings in vivid colour. The colours inform the story: purple highlights wholesome, functioning tissue, whereas cyan marks areas overtaken by scar tissue, an indication the kidney is dropping the battle. Scattered all through are tiny, spherical constructions known as glomeruli, the kidney’s microscopic filters, the place clusters of purple blood cells are visibly trapped mid-filtration. The stark distinction between the thriving purple areas and the spreading cyan creates a vivid map of a kidney slowly dropping operate — and makes the harm unattainable to disregard.
Faculty/Staff Microscopy, 1st Place. Aaron Bell. About 1,500 species of tardigrades — that are among the many most resilient organisms recognized to science — can thrive in many of the various ecologies present in Earth’s biosphere. This picture exhibits a tardigrade galloping, magnified underneath a microscope. Tardigrades can survive extreme circumstances, resembling publicity to excessive temperatures, air deprivation, radiation, dehydration, extraordinarily excessive and low pressures, and hunger. Tardigrades have even survived publicity to outer area.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Video, 1st Place. Faby Claure. This video exhibits a lab check utilizing a shake desk to simulate the consequences of an earthquake on a bridge column. By recreating actual earthquake motions, the researchers examine how bridges behave, the place harm happens and how you can higher predict this harm. In this check, the column is pushed to the purpose of collapse — permitting the researchers to watch failure mechanisms and enhance the design of safer, extra resilient bridges.
Faculty/Staff Video, 1st Place. Ramesh Bist. This video exhibits a robotic designed to assist poultry farms gather eggs. The know-how may assist handle labor shortages by lowering the necessity for repetitive guide work — whereas additionally supporting higher egg high quality and security by extra constant dealing with. By advancing robotic options like this, the analysis goals to assist the way forward for smarter, safer and extra environment friendly farming. The researchers hope to finally develop a system that may robotically transfer by poultry homes to gather eggs with out human intervention.
Undergraduate Student Video, 1st Place. Fiona Wolfe-Roberts. Two stars sure by gravity orbit one another within the binary system Vela-X1. A neutron star two instances the mass of the solar rips matter off its supergiant companion. This video fashions the environment across the supergiant because it leaks mass, inflicting highly effective velocity flows. The huge gravitational forces speed up the new fuel to supersonic speeds, funneling it into the tidal stream, a direct pipeline to the neutron star. Meanwhile, the Coriolis power creates a rotational movement of the orbit, which deflects and curls fuel attempting to flee into distinct bands and whirlpools. The north-south symmetry of the issue seems clearly, whereas the handedness of the rotation creates stark variations within the move on the main and trailing sides. Each particle is ruled by comparatively easy bodily legal guidelines, however when taken as an entire, they kind surprisingly complicated constructions.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Video, 2nd Place. Madeleine “Mac” McDonald Gagne. This video exhibits subject analysis — funded and facilitated by the NOAA National Knauss Fellowship — performed throughout a widespread extreme climate outbreak. The experiment, which happened throughout an EF2 twister on May 23 in Hollis, Oklahoma, included the deployment of the NWS National Severe Storms Lab’s LIFT twister intercept.
Faculty/Staff Video, 2nd Place. Chris Cole. In neuroscience, zebrafish are sometimes used as a mannequin to know the genetic defects and behavioral illnesses of the human nervous system. This video offers a quick glimpse into the benefits of finding out the nervous system of a younger zebrafish — which, in flip, permits researchers to discover how the human nervous system works at a smaller, easier scale. The analysis goals to check the underlying environmental and genetic elements that affect habits in response to sensory cues, resembling loud noises or sudden modifications in lighting.
Undergraduate Student Video, 2nd Place. Emma Payne. This video exhibits a fruit fly species often called Drosophila melanogaster wing waggling — a fast, rhythmic motion that precedes courtship track — in gradual movement. While almost invisible at regular pace, high-speed imaging reveals coordinated oscillations which will operate as motor priming, getting ready the neuromuscular system for the exact wing vibrations required for singing. Slowing down these actions gives a uncommon glimpse into how complicated actions like this transitional habits start — bridging the hole between neural activation and full behavioral output.
Graduate Student/Postdoc Video, Honorable Mention. Kushagra Meshram. This video exhibits a juvenile Steppe Eagle feeding on plastic. Every winter, 1000’s of Steppe Eagles migrate tons of of miles to the Indian subcontinent. But as a substitute of untamed prey, many now rely upon human-generated waste. Landfills and carcass dumps, particularly within the peripheries of protected areas, have turn out to be feeding grounds the place eagles collect in giant numbers to scavenge. These websites expose the eagles to toxins, indigestible plastics and poisoned carcasses — successfully making a deadly lure. Many birds at these websites look like juveniles, pointing to a robust presence of youthful birds in these human-altered feeding grounds.
Undergraduate Student Video, Honorable Mention. Lily Ro. This video exhibits a copper-based metal-organic framework (MOF) synthesized for a creatinine-sensing challenge. Creatinine is a crucial marker of kidney operate — but it surely’s often measured by periodic blood checks reasonably than monitored repeatedly. In this work, the porous copper materials helps create {an electrical} sign when creatinine is current, making it helpful for electrochemical sensing. The materials was positioned on a glass slide and seen underneath gentle and microscopy, revealing vivid colour modifications and high-quality structural element. This analysis is a part of a broader effort to develop a wearable sensor that would monitor creatinine extra simply and fewer invasively over time.
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