Published on 12.11.2026
Best Scientific Image Contest 2026 winners
Helmholtz Imaging is delighted to announce the winners of the Best Scientific Image Contest 2026! Now in its sixth year, the contest continues to highlight how scientific imaging reveals the invisible, offers new perspectives on our world, and brings research to life.
With 125 submissions spanning a wide range of scientific disciplines, this year’s contest once again demonstrates the power of images to communicate complex research and spark curiosity. The winners were celebrated on November 11, 2026, during the Helmholtz Imaging Conference in Leipzig.
A big thank you to everyone who submitted their images and shared their fascinating research with us!
Award Categories and Winners
As in previous years, prizes were awarded in three categories:
- Jury Award – selected by an independent international jury of experts from science and the arts, based on scientific merit, originality, and visual impact.
- Public Choice Award – decided by the imaging community and wider public through an online vote.
- Participants’ Choice Award – voted on by attendees of the Helmholtz Imaging Conference 2026, who selected their favorites from the jury’s top 20 images.
This year’s prizes, totaling €4,500, were generously donated by Siemens Healthineers and DECTRIS.
Jury Award Winners
The top three images selected by our international jury were announced in a video message by Prof Dr Martin Keller, President of the Helmholtz Association.
The Jury Award winners are:
1st Place
Insights into the Developing Heart by Alena Boos & Nadine Spielmann, Helmholtz Munich
This multi-layered view of a developing mouse embryo and its heart combines whole-mount fluorescence imaging, histology, and spatial gene expression data. By linking anatomical structures with molecular activity across different scales, researchers can investigate how the heart develops, uncover mechanisms behind congenital heart defects, and support future advances in diagnosis and treatment.
Prize: €1,000€ by Siemens Healthineers
2nd Place
Enterprise: Keyhole Encounter Insights by Paul H. Kamm, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS & TOMCAT beamline at the Swiss Light Source
Resembling a starship, this image shows a laser-welding process inside metal. A glowing red vapor capillary, known as a keyhole, pierces a pressurized gas cavity and creates blue bubbles within the gray molten weld seam. Time-resolved X-ray tomography reveals how pores form and trapped gas escapes, helping researchers improve welding strategies and produce safer, more reliable metal components. [see also their publication]
Prize: € 700 by Siemens Healthineers
3rd Place
Carbonate Rainbow by Saeid Asadzadeh, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences
This color-coded hyperspectral satellite image shows carbonate rocks in the Anti-Atlas Mountains. The colors represent subtle compositional differences between calcite-rich and dolomite-rich layers. By mapping these variations across entire geological basins, researchers can investigate ancient environmental conditions, fluid flow, and the chemical history preserved in the strata across space and geological time.
Prize: €500 by Dectris
Public & Participants’ Choice Award Winners
While the international jury selected its favorites based on scientific and artistic criteria, the public and conference participants had the opportunity to choose their own winning images.
Dr Sara Krause-Solberg, Scientific Coordinator of Helmholtz Imaging, announced the winners of the Public Choice Award and Participants’ Choice Award during the award ceremony in Leipzig.
Public Choice Award Winners
The Public Choice Award invited everyone to discover the fascinating science behind this year’s submissions and vote for their favorites.
1st Place
The Art of Nuclear Order by Meghna Joon & Johanna Kroll, MDC
A mouse retina is transformed into a neatly organized map of individual cell nuclei. By comparing chromatin structure and newly synthesized RNA across retinal cell types, researchers can investigate how the organization of DNA inside the nucleus shapes gene activity.
Prize: €600 by Siemens Healthineers
2nd Place
The Beauty of Broken Symmetry by Valerija Music, Markus Ilchen, DESY, University of Hamburg
Thousands of electron hits unexpectedly form a heart in this raw velocity-map image. Tiny imperfections break the perfect symmetry expected in theory, creating a beautiful pattern while also helping researchers diagnose and refine a spectrometer built to study ultrafast electron dynamics.
Prize: €300 by Siemens Healthineers
3rd Place
Fireworks in the Eternal Darkness by Veit Dausmann, Anton Theileis, Tobias Strickmann & Jan Taucher, GEOMAR
A large jellyfish appears 2,500 meters deep in the Mozambique Channel, with AI-based coloring showing its position in the sampled water volume. Rare images like this help map deep-sea jellyfish, measure their size, and improve estimates of plankton biodiversity and ocean carbon flows.
Prize: €200 by Siemens Healthineers
Participants’ Choice Award Winners
The Participants’ Choice Award was decided by attendees of the Helmholtz Imaging Conference 2026, who had the opportunity to explore the exhibited images and vote for their favorites.
1st Place
Enterprise: Keyhole Encounter Insights by Paul H. Kamm, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS & TOMCAT beamline at the Swiss Light Source
Resembling a starship, this image shows a laser-welding process inside metal. A glowing red vapor capillary, known as a keyhole, pierces a pressurized gas cavity and creates blue bubbles within the gray molten weld seam. Time-resolved X-ray tomography reveals how pores form and trapped gas escapes, helping researchers improve welding strategies and produce safer, more reliable metal components. [see also their publication]
Prize: €600 by Siemens Healthineers
2nd Place
Nadine Spielmann & Gerhard Przemeck, Helmholtz Munich
Two littermate mouse embryos show strikingly different outcomes: normal development beside resorption linked to a congenital heart disease model. Such comparisons help researchers test whether suspected genes directly disrupt development and embryo viability.
Prize: €400 by Siemens Healthineers
3rd Place
Jo Nyffeler & Luisa Reger, UFZ
Six fluorescent stains reveal the inner architecture of Xenopus cells, including an unexpected smile. Behind the playful shape lies a chemically induced cellular response that can help researchers detect early toxicity and improve amphibian risk assessment while reducing animal testing.
Prize: €200 by Siemens Healthineers
We warmly congratulate all award winners and thank everyone who contributed to this year’s contest. The winning entries represent just a small selection of the outstanding scientific images submitted this year.
Curious to see more? Explore the top 21 images (including the Public Choice Award winners) of the Best Scientific Image Contest 2026 in our virtual gallery and discover the stories behind them!
Visit the Best Scientific Image Contest 2026 Gallery (coming soon)Exhibition and Outreach
The top 20 images selected by the jury are also featured in a traveling exhibition, bringing the fascinating research of the Helmholtz Association to audiences across Germany.
Interested in hosting the exhibition? Feel free to get in touch with us at support@helmholtz-imaging.de.
Photos: Jörg Modrow
About Helmholtz Imaging
Helmholtz Imaging‘s mission is to catalyze scientific discovery from sensory measurements to knowledge. Image data provide a substantial part of data being generated in scientific research. Helmholtz Imaging is the overarching platform to better leverage and make accessible to everyone the innovative modalities, methodological richness, and data treasures of the Helmholtz Association.
We thank our donors Siemens Healthineers and Dectris for their generous support in providing prizes for our image contest.
