I initiated a Beauty Contest at the 9th International Conference on Magnetic Resonance Microscopy (ICMRM) in Aachen, Germany, to select the best-looking images. The first award was conducted inside the caves of Feestgrot, Valkenburg, the Netherlands. The Contest has been running at all recent ICMRM conferences since 2007, becoming a regular event that our researchers can publicize their eye-candies.
The Motivations: We all have these moments in our life that nothing seems working in whatever we are assigned to do or plan to do. We just get some odd-looking images from our experiments – full of artifacts – that is our jargon. If you have not yet had one of these moments, you have not pushed your machine too hard. Or occasionally, we need to generate some nicely looking images, to be used in one of these ‘dog-shows’ to impress potential students or visitors. So, one way or another, we all have these images that we do not know what to do with them. This contest is your chance to show off these images that otherwise would never see the light (i.e., be published). Actually getting a nice-looking image is not easy. It needs a deep understanding of NMR imaging, both in theory and in practice. It needs an appreciation of art. It also needs the personal character of a perfectionistThis Contest is particularly suitable for our students and young researchers, since the generation of a beauty takes the effort of just one person (most likely a student), with dedication.
The Rules: Since this is a beauty contest, beauty has to be the most important criteria. In our language, the SNR matters; the resolution matters; the image contrast matters; and artifact and distortion matters, unless they are so bad that they form some nice patterns. Most of all, the overall artistic impression matters. In a way, if you think that your image is worth being framed and hanged on the wall of someone’s living room, you have a wining entry.
Submission: If you plan to submit your image(s), please do not put your name on the printout. You give the image(s) to the people at the Conference Registration, who will assign your entry a number. The judging is done anonymously. The organizers will recruit at least two judges who do not know who submit the entries. The organizers’ own options are not counted towards the final winner.
The Winners and the Prizes:
In 2007, the winner was Melanie Britton (UK) for this image, who received a classical book in NMR Literature, donated by the author who was present at the ceremony.
In 2009, the winners were Hilary Fabich (USA) for the most artistic award of this image and Igor Koptyug (Russia) for the most artifactual award of this image. Both winners received the local gifts from Yellowstone, Montana.
In 2011, the winner was Nian Wang (USA) for this image. The winner received a gift package (a gem from New Zealand’s National Museum, a Lecture CD by Professor Paul Callaghan, and a mysterious toy), all sponsored by Dr Andrew Coy, the CEO of Magritek in Wellington New Zealand.
In 2013, the winner was Maria Pia Herrling (Germany) for this composite image. The winner received a gift package (a Cambridge-magnet, Cambridge-teddy bear and 2 books (a. o. The Long Road to Stockholm: The Story of Magnetic Resonance Imaging - An Autobiography)) from the organizer at Cambridge, UK.
In 2015, the winner was this composite image by Maria Muravyeva, who was a PhD student from Nizhni Novgorod State University, Russia. Maria's hobby was painting and liked visiting museums and galleries. In the lab she works with mice. The winner received a Bavarian cup (beautiful!), a book ("NMR in Biomedicine: The Physical Basis", Edited by Eiichi Fukushima) and the prize diploma.
In 2017, the two winners were Krzysztof Klodowski (AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland) for his artistic representation of the spatial inhomogeneities of b-matrix elements and Mick Mantle (Cambridge Univ, UK) for his surprising result when the experimental setting was not completed! (Both entries received the same score from three anonymous reviewers.) Both winners received a NMR/MRI book, sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry ("Biophysics and Biochemistry of Cartilage by NMR and MRI") and Wiley-VCH ("Spatially Resolved Magnetic Resonance: Methods, Materials, Medicine, Biology, Rheology, Geology, Ecology, Hardware"), respectively.
In 2019, the winner was Stefan Benders (RWTH Aachen, Germany) for this image. The winner received two highly acclaimed books from the sponsors.
In 2023, the winner was Maxime Yon (Lund University) for this image. The winner received a copy of the new book from the organizer.