Winner of the #LoveIrishResearch Twitter photo competition is announced

With images fast becoming the ‘universal language’, we asked researchers across the country to show and tell us why they love their research as part of our #LoveIrishResearch communications campaign for 2016.

Selected from 114 amazing entries, the well-deserved first prize went to Karl Gaff, of the Dublin Institute of Technology, for his image ‘A bugs view on a flower with pesky pollen grains emerging from the anthers’.

Since graduating with an MSc in the field of Imaging for Biological Microscopy, Karl has built up an extensive portfolio of biological micro-imagery, which can be viewed here.

By employing both light and electron microscopy techniques, Karl’s goal is to create a library of aesthetically pleasing and educational imagery of subjects found in nature, from the macro to the nano scale. Karl says ‘beauty is everywhere in nature and, just because it can’t be seen with the unaided eye, it does not mean that it’s not there’.

Karl has previously been a finalist in many image contests including Olympus Bioscapes, The Royal Photographic Society for Science, the UCD Image Competition and BioEconomy 2016.