Research in Focus 2026 Winners

Grand Prize Winner

A fluorescence microscopy photo of an irregularly-shaped cellular structure (in red) surrounded by round cell nuclei (in blue), on a black background.

Title: Turning Red
By: Jasmyne Storm
Description: Ever feel overwhelmed? Your cells do too. As sentinels of the brain, microglia are usually calm and ready. But we all have limits. Fluorescent imaging captures when cellular stress takes over: amidst a sea of calm blue cells, a red inflammasome is released. Proof that even cells have bad days!

Artistry in Research - Winner

A colour photo of green trees in a forest reflected on calm water, with morning light

Title: Where Passion Meets Research
By: Nadeesha Dissanayaka
Description: This photograph was taken early in the morning during 'Nibi gathering' at Whiteshell Provincial Park, where I attended to deepen my knowledge of Indigenous teachings about land and water. When I stepped out of my tent, the forest was perfectly reflected in the water, with birds singing all around.

Artistry in Research - Runner-Up

An uneven rock wall glowing with patches of bright red, blue and turquoise.

Title: Luminescence in the Underground
By: Cecilia Eason
Description: While examining the walls of an old mine entrance for traces of UV fluorescent dust left by bats I had covered with that dust the previous night, I observed the stone glowing in multiple colours under the UV light: a small moment of wonder during a strenuous field season.

Community Catalysts - Winner

A woman in an outdoor skatepark, wearing a white shirt and jeans balances on her skateboard on top of an obstacle decorated with the trans pride flag.

Title: Claiming Space to Skate
By: Maddalena Nowosad
Description: Captured at a Winnipeg event for women and 2SLGBTQIA+ skateboarders, highlighting efforts to make skateboarding more inclusive. It coincided with my research on increasing equity for marginalized skateboarders, which later won the ESU prize for best expository writing in an upper-level rhetoric course.

Community Catalysts - Runner-Up

Title: The Ins And Outs Of The Library
By: Joffrey Abainza
Description:
Feb-25-2025: Library's new visitor counter went online.
Old system: Gate counters tallied manually.
New system (2025 data):
6,626 most visitors in a week (Sep 7-13)
1,515 most visitors in a day (Oct 21)
546 average daily visitors
133,326 total visitors
Result: Better information for managing events, resources, and emergencies.

Faces of Discovery - Winner

Three female scientists smiling at the camera, wearing blue gloves with pictures drawn on them in sharpie. Shelves with reagent bottles in background.

Title: The Glia Club
By: Jasmyne Storm
Description: Microglia, front and center. Because when you study brain cells all day, they become part of your personality. This is scientific discovery up close: Real people, real curiosity, and lots of teamwork. Behind every breakthrough are faces like ours — thinking, laughing, experimenting, and occasionally doodling cells on gloves.

Faces of Discovery - Runner-Up

A biologist wearing a face mask and gloves is stretching out and inspecting the right wing of a little brown bat.

Title: Tiniest Handshake
By: Malcolm Reimer
Description of photo: The light of a headlamp reveals the hand-like nature of a bat's wing, hinting at our shared evolutionary history. MSc student Lilee Donahue is examining this wing for signs of damage from white-nose disease, which has endangered several bat species in North America.

Framing Fieldwork - Winner

A harp trap stands at a mine entrance at dusk, with a researcher behind it using a red headlamp against a rocky hillside surrounded by rainforest.

Title: Illuminating Emergence
By: Taylor Cangemi
Description of photo: A harp trap stands at the entrance of an abandoned mine to capture bats during emergence. The photograph reveals a quiet moment of nightfall, when field research brings the hidden lives of nocturnal animals to light. Red light, commonly used around wildlife, minimizes disturbance while still illuminating the scene.

Framing Fieldwork - Runner-up

A woman in a bright blue jacket walks through snow to a black car parked on a gravel road. There is a pine forest in the background.

Title: The Worst Field Vehicle of All Time
By: Malcolm Reimer
Description: For a 250 km journey to a remote bat cave through one of the worst blizzards of the year, a Mercedes sedan was probably not the best choice. At least it had heated seats.

Powered Perception - Winner

Powered Perception - Runner-Up

A microscopic image of diagonally arranged, purple-stained tissue with branching finger-like projections and oval, blue cells within the tips.

Title: The Architecture of Breathing
By: Kiara Eggerman
Description: Juvenile brook trout breathe out through their gills. This image shows these gills at 40x total magnification, stained with hematoxylin, eosin and alcian blue. Part of my honours thesis involves analyzing images like these to examine the histological effects that elevated carbon dioxide and temperature have on brook trout gills.

Powered Perception - Runner-Up

A dark blue and black background with a slash of yellow, orange and green with three orbs, two on the right and one on the left.

Title: The Hidden Geometry of Culinary History
By: Safia Soussi Gounni
Description: These micrsoscopic squash starch granules still clinging to delicate seed fibers from Canímar Abajo, Cuba are central to the archaeobotanical reconstructions of the ancient diet of pre-colonial indigenous populations in Cuba. In these microscopic remnants, fragments of Indigenous culture, resilience, and memory emerge despite centuries of colonial erasure.

Best Description - Winner

A black and white, long-exposure photo of three female scientists in lab coats moving around a research lab space.

Title: Blur of Discovery
By: Jasmyne Storm
Description: This is the rhythm of research: A blur of hands, minds, and ideas. Discovery doesn’t happen in stillness. There is quiet beauty in the movement, laughter, curiosity, collaboration, and all the other tiny, unpredictable moments that make research feel alive.

Viewer’s Choice - Winner

Title: Where Passion Meets Research
By: Nadeesha Dissanayaka
Description: This photograph was taken early in the morning during 'Nibi gathering' at Whiteshell Provincial Park, where I attended to deepen my knowledge of Indigenous teachings about land and water. When I stepped out of my tent, the forest was perfectly reflected in the water, with birds singing all around.

Viewer's Choice - Runner-Up

A long corridor with polished floors, overhead fluorescent lights, and exposed white ceiling pipes. The walls are lined with colourful diagonal beams.

Title: Entering the Corridor of Knowing (The First Walk)
By: Gabriel Bell-Gam
Description: On my first day of gradschool, I walked through an unexpected tunnel of colour: Chronochroma-6 wrapping the hallway like a quiet guardian of new beginnings. Searching for my lecture hall, I instead found a moment of reflection: a corridor carrying anticipation, uncertainty, and the quiet hope of what lies ahead.