Images of Research Competition highlights grad student photography

Graduate students need to perform great research but also need to tell their research stories effectively to a public audience. The Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) and the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) have partnered again to host the Images of Research Competition, formerly known as the FGS/GSA Graduate Research Photo Competition.

• Photo above: Lighting in the Icy Seas, by 2020 first-place winner Timothy Hiu-Tung Choi, Military and Strategic Studies

“In this first-ever virtual Images of Research Competition, I'm excited to provide graduate students with the opportunity to explore new ways of thinking about their research, its value, and how it can be presented to an audience outside of your research domain through images," says Dr. Tara Christie, PhD, manager of the FGS MyGradSkills program. 

"In our goal to provide the best learning and experience, we've added new workshops and updated our programming to work in a virtual environment. Another exciting development is that of a new online 'course' that houses information, resources, and opportunity for reflection. I look forward to working with the graduate students and seeing the final results.”

The competition also offers UCalgary grad students opportunities to learn photo editing and abstract writing skills through two workshops. There was a lot of interest and participation for the Photo Editing Workshop, hosted in December 2020, and the organizers encourage UCalgary graduate students to sign up for the Crafting Abstracts that Connect with your Audience Workshop hosted on Jan. 22. 

The organizers are excited to announce the panel of judges who will evaluate the competition’s submissions this year. "We reached out to high-profile organizations with the hope that they could participate in this competition," says Mary Zhang, GSA vice-president (student life). "To our delight, Mary Anne Moser, TELUS Spark CEO and president, and Melanie Kjorlien, vice-president of engagement and COO with the Glenbow Museum, have agreed to be on the panel this year. Dr. Penny Pexman, PhD, associate vice-president (research) at the University of Calgary, and Nima Najand, from Innovate Calgary, also confirmed their participation.

“This means a lot to our competition and its participants as their submissions will be judged by knowledgeable and respectable individuals within the community, those with valuable feedback and perspectives that could further enhance our graduate students’ research.”

The deadline for UCalgary graduate students to sign up for this competition is Jan. 24. Learn the details of the requirements and submission process at the Images of Research Competition webpage. The results will be shared at a virtual event in March.

Images from previous competitions may be found here.