Ten years after its launch, the Cool Science Image (CSI) Contest is as hot as ever. Sponsored by Promega Corporation with additional support from the UW–Madison Division of the Arts, the annual competition invites UW-Madison students, staff, and faculty to submit photos and videos that depict an object or phenomenon from any discipline.
Like Promega’s quest to celebrate the connection between science and creativity to solve problems, CSI recognizes the importance of visual imagery in science, nature, and exploration. The contest has grown to draw over 100 submissions featuring images created with point-and-shoot digital cameras, microscopes, telescopes, schematics, and videos.
Winning entries appear on multiple campus websites and university social media accounts. They are also showcased during the Wisconsin Science Festival.
The 2021 winners were announced in late September. Their work will be on display at the McPherson Eye Research Institute’s Mandelbaum and Albert Family Vision Gallery on the ninth floor of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research through December.
Because there was no opportunity to display the 2020 contest winners in-person due to the pandemic, this year’s exhibit is a double-feature for both the 2020 and 2021 contests.