Big Winner In Small World Competition

Mit Research Assistant Tops The Field

By Hank Russell

NEW YORK (October 7) ? Nikon Instruments Inc. (Melville, NY) took over the Good Morning America studios in Times Square to host the 30 th Annual Nikon International Small World Photomicrography Contest. Throughout the studio and on Reuters' electronic billboard were submissions of past winners, but it wasn't until later in the night that the winner was announced.

Out of a record 1,200 images submitted, the winner was Seth Coe-Sullivan, a graduate research assistant at the Research Laboratory of Organic Optics and Electronics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (Cambridge, MA) Research Laboratory of Electronics. Nikon presented Coe-Sullivan with an award and $3,000 in Nikon photographic, scientific or industrial equipment and accessories.

First Time For Everything
This was Coe-Sullivan's first time he entered the contest. "I didn't think I would have any chance, to be honest," he said. "I had no idea of the contest, but the two guys in my group knew about it. They said, 'You should send it in.' A few weeks ago, I got a call saying, ?We have good news and you should really call us back.'"

Coe-Sullivan's winning image was of quantum dot nanocrystals deposited on a silicon substrate magnified 200 times using light reflectance. "It was actually a failed experiment," Coe-Sullivan explained. "The only reason I kept it was to document the failure. I wish I could say I spent hours getting it right, but that wasn't the case."

The Rest Of The Field