Picture of humble flea wins top award

AN image of a member of the Daphnia family, commonly known as a water flea, has won a prestigious UCD research competition.

The picture of the tiny creature, collected from the lake at University College Dublin, has been selected as the overall winner of the 2014 UCD Images of Research Competition.

Daphnia are transparent organisms commonly found in fresh water ponds and range in size from 0.25-1.55mm. One member of this family is encrusted with green micro-organisms, which suggests they are symbiotically bound.

The winning image was taken by Karl Gaff, a research technician in the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science.

The UCD Images of Research competition invites researchers to submit compelling digital images created in the course of their research. It aims to find the most innovative and imaginative images that convey the depth and range of research taking place at UCD. Each year 12 images are shortlisted by a panel of UCD staff and external judges from the arts and science.

This year an overall winner and 11 runners-up were selected from a total of 90 entries.
At an event held in the UCD O’Brien Centre for Science to announce the overall winner,

Professor Orla Feely, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact said,

“Over the last eight years the UCD Images of Research Competition has generated a unique collection of research images from across all schools and research institutes in UCD.

“These images are a wonderful illustration of the varied and innovative research undertaken at UCD.

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Since the UCD Images of Research Competition started in 2006, almost 2,000 entries have been submitted and these images now form the University College Dublin Images of Research Collection.