Art of the Heart Winners 2020

17 December 2020

The champions of our 2020 Art of the Heart Scientific Photo Competition have just been announced and the winning photos are breathtaking!

Back by popular demand, the Institute’s Art of the Heart Competition provides a glimpse behind the scenes into the world of a scientist.

Day after day our researchers look through the lens of a microscope, capturing hundreds of molecular images in the search for better ways to treat and prevent heart disease.

The competition is an opportunity to showcase scientific photos of unique beauty and incredible detail that can’t be seen with the naked eye.

This year, dozens of anonymous entries were submitted to the peer-reviewed contest, displaying an abundance of talent and enormous technical skill.

The photos were judged across five categories;

• Best Scientific Photo
• Best Aesthetic Photo
• Best Technical Photo
• Donor’s Choice Award
• People’s Choice Award

Our supporters were also given the opportunity to vote for their favourite image, with a fun and light-hearted competition across our social media platforms to determine the People’s Choice Award.

And the winners are…

Best Scientific Photo & Technical Photo

After tallying the votes and much deliberation, the Best Scientific Photo was a three-way tie! Dr Monique Bax, Dr Vaibhao Janbandhu and Dimuthu Alankarage have been crowned the joint winners. Acknowledging the “difficulty in capturing the image”, Dimuthu Alankarage was also awarded the prize for Best Technical Photo with her impressive entry, taken using Micro-CT. Below is Dr Monique Bax and her winning entry 'Down the Rabbit Hole.'

Best Aesthetic Photo

Showing a more creative side, the winner of the Best Aesthetic Photo was Dr Vaibhao Janbandhu, for his entry 'Fields of Gold', showing differentiated cardiac fibroblasts. This particular image was recognised for displaying “exceptional beauty and impact”.

Donor's Choice Award

The Donor’s Choice Award was once again Dr Vaibhao Janbandhu, for his entry 'The Art of Dying' which captures a heart cell showing signs of death after prolonged oxygen deprivation.

People's Choice Award

And finally to the crowd favourite - the People’s Choice Award as voted across social media. After reaching more than 14,000 people and tallying almost 300 reactions, comments and shares and 30 comments, the winner of the People’s Choice Award was Osvaldo Contreras for his entry entitled, 'Imagine'.

Congratulations to all of our winners and a big thank you to everyone who participated in the 2020 Art of the Heart Scientific Image Competition.

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For all media enquiries and interview requests, please contact:

Julia Timms
Head, Media & Communications
j.timms@victorchang.edu.au
0457 517 355