Stanford Earth photos inspire science and wonder

An undergraduate, a graduate student, and a staff member have won the 2018 Stanford Earth Photo Contest. Winners were Human Biology major Hanna Payne for Best Field Photo, PhD candidate Meredith Goebel for Best Lab Photo, and Stanford Earth Materials Lab manager Katie Dunn for Best Landscape Photo. The photo contest, hosted by the Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth), was undertaken in the fall and winners were announced Dec. 6.

“Congratulations to all,” said Stanford Earth Dean Steve Graham. “The number and variety of submissions was truly impressive, illustrating the wide variety of science and engineering research and teaching conducted all over the globe.

“But for all of the evocative scenery in the photos submitted for our contest, its real role is as the backdrop for the important work we do in Stanford Earth, whether in the terrestrial realm, or in the oceans, or sampling the biosphere," Graham said. "We in Stanford Earth are truly fortunate to study the Earth and to have talented photographers among us who document what we do, how we do it, and where we do it!”

Nearly 200 photos were submitted from around the world and from every corner of the school – as well as from students outside the school who are engaging in programs led by Stanford Earth faculty. Hanna Payne, for example, is a HumBio undergraduate who was participating in Rob Dunbar's Stanford at Sea program when she snapped the winning Minke Whale shot in the Field Photos category. 

Judges included Stanford Earth Senior Associate Dean Scott Fendorf, Stanford Earth Dean Steve Graham, Educational Affairs Program Director Audrey Yau, Earth Systems Science PhD student Shersingh Tumber-Davila, Geological Sciences PhD student Molly Witter, Associate Communications Director and School Highlights Editor Dee Tucker, and Associate Dean for Marketing/Communications Barbara Buell. 

Contestants were asked to submit in one or more of three categories: 1) Landscape photos showing the sheer beauty of what we experience in our work with the Earth. These were judged on composition, content (scenic beauty), and image quality (clarity, resolution, lighting). 2) Field photos depicting students directly engaged in field work. These were judged on composition, content (tells a story), and image quality. 3) Lab photos depicting our students, faculty, or researchers at work in the lab. These were judged on composition, content (tells a story), and image quality. The top winner in each category received a set of Apple wireless AirPods.

View the photos here:

Milky Way

The Milky Way over the Green River in Utah on the Crossing the Cordillera field trip.

Photographed by Katie Dunn, Stanford Earth Lab Manager.

Minke Whale

A juvenile Minke whale, cruising the waters of the South Pacific, greets student sailors Daela Tipton and Neil Singh aboard the Stanford at SEA program ship.

Photographed by Hanna Payne,  human biology undergraduate student.

Tubes
PhD candidate Meredith Goebel labels calibration samples from a photometric tracer experiment in the lab.
Photographed by Meredith Goebel, Geophysics PhD student.