Scientists' Striking Images Win Nature Photography Competition
Nature journal has announced the winners of its annual Scientists at Work photography competition, featuring images ranging from a neon-lit mosquito under UV light to a flock of endangered ibises guided by an ultralight aircraft. The contest highlights scientists conducting fieldwork and laboratory research across multiple continents and ecosystems. The winning images draw attention to conservation efforts, environmental threats like algal blooms, and disease research, demonstrating how scientific photography can bridge the gap between research and public engagement.
The journal Nature has revealed the winners of its 2025 Scientists at Work photo competition, recognizing images that capture researchers in the act of conducting science. The overall winner, taken by Gunnar Hartmann, an undergraduate at the University of Koblenz, documents a conservation mission in which the Waldrappteam guided 36 northern bald ibises — a species extinct in Europe for 400 years — along a 1,700-mile migratory route from Germany to Spain using an ultralight aircraft. Other winning images include an aerial shot of a toxic algal bloom in Ontario's Dog Lake by PhD student Allen Tian, an underwater photograph of a marine biologist sampling microbes from a wild whale shark off western Australia, and two divers studying coral metabolism inside a transparent incubation chamber in the Red Sea. A fifth winning image, shot at the University of Notre Dame, shows vector biologist Lee Haines examining a mosquito glowing neon pink and purple under UV light — part of research into compounds that could kill mosquitoes carrying diseases such as Zika, dengue, and West Nile virus. The competition underscores the role of scientific photography in making complex research accessible and emotionally resonant to the public.
Limitations & open questions
The article does not specify how many total entries were submitted to the competition or the full judging criteria used by Nature.
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From neon mosquitoes to winged migrations, top images captured by scientists
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