Prof’s image of droplets in running for national award

Friday, June 3, 2022

A professor at Waterloo Engineering is in the running in a national contest designed to showcase striking images captured by researchers.

Zhao Pan, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, is co-creator of one of 20 images in the finals of the 2022 edition of Science Exposed, a contest organized by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Zhao Pan and a collaborator captured this image of colourful droplets suspended from crossed fibres

Zhao Pan and a collaborator captured this image of colourful droplets suspended from crossed fibres.

His photograph, produced with collaborator Floriane Weyer of the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, shows colorful droplets suspended from fibres crossed at a variety of angles.

The image was captured during research - inspired by huge droplets Pan observed hanging from the tips of leaves on cypress trees - into how the angles at which fibers cross affect the volume of droplets they can suspend.

Fraser King, a PhD candidate in geography at the University of Waterloo, is also a finalist for an image of a snapshot in time of a deep learning neural network’s complex brain for calculating precipitation.

Voting for the People’s Choice award is now open at: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ScienceExposed-PreuveParLimage/past_winners-images_des_gagnants_eng.asp