2024 SciArt Contest Winners

We hosted our annual sci-art contest this year and received so many wonderful pieces. See the winners below!

UC Davis Affiliates

First place - Cloude Shao

Description: Black cat researcher in a blue lab coat holding a flask of purple fluid - love potion.

Instagram: @cloude_paint

 

Second Place - Jay Chen

Description: Cordyceps is a group of parasitic fungus that mainly utilize insects as hosts. Though often associated with horror in media, cordyceps have really interesting evolutionary adaptations that can be eerily beautiful.

 

California Winners

First Place: Protect my Little Ones by Nina Sokolov

Description: Protect my little ones: Did you know that the green-eyed wasp (Dinocampus coccinellae) uses ladybugs as gruesome babysitters? The wasp parasitizes the beetle, stinging her and laying egg inside. The baby wasp develops and bursts from the ladybug’s belly. Then the host stands guard over the forming cocoon, paralyzed, protecting them from predators. The exact timing of this paralysis has been a mystery, but recently research has shown that a type of polio virus could be responsible for controlling the ladybugs’ zombie-like behavior.

Instagram: @Hawkwasp

Second Place: Signe White

Description: Capturing birds using cross-stitch embroidery colors brings the pigments of the birds to life. Three pieces are compiled here: a yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) inspired by one who made holes around a cedar tree outside my apartment, a red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) inspired by a family of them outside of my parents' cabin, and a Steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) inspired by time in the California mountains.

Social media handles: @TheRealSigWhite (X/Twitter), sigwhite1 (Instagram), sigwhite (Facebook)

 

Thank you to everybody who participated, and a big congratulations to our winners!