Andy White Winner in Global Photowalk

There is only one event worldwide that presents photographers an equal opportunity to explore, capture, and create the most stunning photos depicting particle physics laboratories. Hundreds of talented and fearless photographers participated in the second-ever Global Particle Physics Photowalk in September 2012. From the thousands of striking and inspired photographs, the international panel of professional photographers has chosen the single top three photos of the competition. TRIUMF is pleased to announce and congratulate local contestant Andy White, a 3rd year Visual Arts student at UBC from North Vancouver, who was awarded 2nd place in the juried competition for his winning photo of TIGRESS.

Each of the ten participating laboratories selected local winners from thousands of submitted photos and advanced top photographs to the global competition, judged by an international panel of professional photographers. The winners are listed below. 

Along with studying art and photography at school, Andy is also a competitive Javelin thrower on the varsity track & field team. His spirited nature served him well in this competition. "I come from quite an Arts-based background and really don't have much involvement with science, yet I have always been fascinated by technology so I was eager to get involved. This would be my first time visiting TRIUMF and I had no idea what to expect," explained Andy.

What he found during his visit to TRIUMF was TIGRESS, a nuclear physics spectrometer, in the ISAC-II building. This equipment allows researchers to study the structure of the nucleus and the forces that hold it together by analyzing rare nuclear reactions.

"What drew me to TIGRESS was its element of fine craftsmanship, colour and shape. I chose to photograph it symmetrically and end-on to reveal these features as they were best presented," said Andy.

Greg Hackman, research scientist at TRIUMF, is responsible for the operation and maintenance of TIGRESS. "This is a gamma-ray detector designed for nuclear structure experiments and specifically to make optimal use of ISAC," says Greg. "The function entirely drove the form."

Andy muses, "It was great connecting the arts with science, and this photowalk offered me a unique challenge to present technology in a creative way. What is most fascinating is our human capability to create such instruments, and this is what I intended to bring forward in my images."

To decipher the science behind TIGRESS, as displayed in Andy's photo, Science Division Head Reiner Kruecken explains, "Instruments like TIGRESS allow us to peak into the femto-world of the atomic nucleus and deduce what is happening in this otherwise invisible world which is only the size of one millionth of a millionth of a millimeter. What you see in the photo from inside to outside are Germanium crystals and two layers of so-called BGO shield detectors. These shield detectors look toward the center of the array where we induce nuclear reactions and show us something about the structure and dynamics in atomic nuclei."

Just as physicists are enticed by symmetries in nature as they unleash mysteries of the universe, photographers are drawn to symmetries in their subjects as they create alluring images to captivate their audience.

Thank you to the entire cohort of photographers who visited TRIUMF and shared their portrayal of the laboratory with us and with the public.

And a special thank you to the judges for their expert eye, photographers Stanley Greenberg from the US, Roy Robertson from the UK, Andrew Haw from Canada, and Luca Casonato from Italy.

The winners of the Juried Competition:

1. Top prize goes to Joseph Paul Boccio's detailed photograph of the KLOE detector at INFN's Frascati National Laboratory
2. Second prize to Andy White's photo capturing the color and symmetry of the TIGRESS detector at TRIUMF
3. Third prize to Helen Trist's photograph of data storage at the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

The winners of the People's Choice competition, as voted on by the public online:

1. Top prize to Nino Bruno
2. Second prize to Enrique Diaz
3. Third prize to Steve Zimic.

Participating laboratories include:

• Brookhaven National Laboratory 
(New York, USA)
• Catania National Laboratory
 (Catania, Italy)
• Chilbolton Observatory 
(Hampshire, UK)
• Daresbury Laboratory
 (Cheshire, UK)
• Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory 
(Illinois, USA)
• Frascati National Laboratory
 (Frascati, Italy)
• Gran Sasso National Laboratory 
(Gran Sasso, Italy)
• Rutherford Appleton Laboratory 
(Oxfordshire, UK)
• TRIUMF
 (Vancouver, Canada)
• United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre 
(Edinburgh, UK)

The winning photographs will be featured in upcoming issues of the particle physics publications the CERN Courier and symmetry and the Italian popular science magazine Le Scienze. The participating laboratories will also feature the global winners and their local Photowalk selections in temporary exhibits.

The top thirty-nine photographs from the Photowalk, including the six winners of the jury and "people's choice" competitions, are viewable online at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/interactions_photos/sets/72157632715630871

Global Physics Photowalk content taken from an InterActions Press Release

Andy White's personal Flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/andy6white