Chemistry graduate student wins NanoArtography award

2025-02-13

Writer(s): Steve Scherer

Aaron Mena, a third-year graduate student in Professor Jonathan Wilker’s lab, was an award winner in the 2024 NanoArtography, an international science image contest that combines nanoscience and art.

His image, The Inorganic Riparian Forest, was awarded third place in the competition that included more than 300 submissions from 29 different countries.

This is a scanning electron micrograph of calcium carbonate suspended in a urea solution and then dried for 8 days. During the drying process, cracks develop on the surface of the material, exposing two unique topographies. The micrograph has been colorized to illustrate the two unique topographies within the crack, which closely resemble a river and riverbanks. A mixture of calcium carbonate and urea surrounds the “river,” which has been colorized to resemble forestry. This combination of forests adjacent to a body of water is known as a riparian forest. The image width is 0.368 mm. -Aaron Mena

According to NanoArtography, the competition is open to everyone and aims to promote the field of nanoscience by showcasing its aesthetic potential, merging art with the microscopic world, allowing people to appreciate the beauty of nanomaterials through artistic representation.

Mena, a native of Pensacola, Fla., was the only student from Purdue to win a judged award. Two Purdue engineering students were awarded People’s Choice awards.