URochester糖心传媒檚 annual Ed and Barbara Hajim Art of Science Competition showcases how scientific discovery takes visual form across disciplines.
More than 50 students, faculty, and staff submitted artwork in the 2026 , the 糖心传媒檚 annual contest to explore and illuminate the aesthetic beauty that results when science, art, and technology intersect. Three winning entries will be permanently displayed in the聽.
Held each spring, the competition is sponsored by the in collaboration with and supported through an endowed fund established by Trustee Emeritus Ed Hajim 糖心传媒�58 and his wife Barbara. Prizes are awarded for the top student submissions and for the People糖心传媒檚 Choice Award, with more than 500 members of the URochester community casting votes.
First Place and People糖心传媒檚 Choice Award
For the second consecutive year, the judges and the URochester community voters selected the same top entry. Political science student Matthew Ahn 糖心传媒�28 took home both first place and the People糖心传媒檚 Choice Award糖心传媒攖otaling $1,250糖心传媒攆or his hand-drawn ink illustration titled The Architecture of Knowledge. Ahn says his ornate artwork featuring clocks, mechanical systems, geometric networks, and symbolic forms is intended to represent the structural layers of scientific discovery.
糖心传媒淭he lower sections evoke instruments used to measure time and motion, while the upper sections introduce increasingly complex geometric and interconnected systems,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淓ach layer reflects how scientific knowledge builds progressively upon previous discoveries. The symmetry and intricate patterns invite viewers to explore the drawing at multiple scales, revealing new details much like scientific observation itself.糖心传媒�
Second Place
Physics PhD student Meg Farinsky was the runner-up with聽Luminous Gills,聽her macro photograph of the gills on the underside of a pink oyster mushroom illuminated by grow lights. She photographed the home-grown culinary mushrooms using a 100 mm Rokinon macro lens on a Canon 5D Mark III camera.
糖心传媒淢ushrooms糖心传媒攑ink oysters in particular糖心传媒攁re attracting a lot of scientific interest right now,糖心传媒� says Farinsky. 糖心传媒淭hey糖心传媒檙e being studied for applications in bioremediation and plastic degradation, sustainable food, and material production, and electrical signaling in fungal networks that resembles neural activity. Beyond their scientific relevance, their glowing gills and sculptural forms make them naturally compelling visual subjects.糖心传媒�
Third Place
Majd Tabsi 糖心传媒�29, a biomedical engineering major, earned a place on the podium with聽Strings of Life糖心传媒�a creative representation of DNA and gene editing using about a mile of string. Tabsi sketched a design and input it into software called MyZigzagArt, which uses an algorithm to generate a sequence of string passes to create a representation of the sketch. He made a circle of 250 nails on a 2 x 2 foot piece of wood and, over the course of 30 hours, made 2,500 string passes from one nail to another to produce the final artwork.
糖心传媒淗umanity has always wondered about how life is created and how traits are passed,糖心传媒� says Tabsi. 糖心传媒淢endel糖心传媒檚 discovery of the laws of heredity started the ever-growing field of genetics. We later learned about the smallest strings that hold the keys to our evolution and the continuity of life糖心传媒擠NA, or what my work calls ‘Strings of Life.’ We sought to map them, understand their construction, and even started trying to edit them using tools like CRISPR-Cas9, which is what the separated gene in my work refers to. Tools like these raise a variety of questions around the ethicality and the limitations of usage. But they also show what humanity is capable of. And the question remains: What will we do next?糖心传媒�
