2008 Photomicrography Competition

Ivan Oransky, MD, is managing editor, online, at Scientific American. Previously, he was deputy editor of The Scientist, editor in chief of the medical student section of the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) and of Praxis Post, an online magazine of medicine and culture. Under his leadership, the editorial team of The Scientist earned the 2006 and 2007 Gold Eddie Awards for science magazines from FOLIO and finalist (top 10) status in the 2007 American Society of Business Publication Editors’ Magazine of the Year contest (80,000 and under division). In its first year of publication, Praxis Post was a finalist for the 2001 Online News Association Award for General Excellence. Oransky is the author or co-author of four books, including The Common Symptom Answer Guide (McGraw-Hill, 2004), and has written for numerous publications including the Boston Globe, The Lancet, The New Republic, and the Wall Street Journal Online. He received his BA at Harvard and his MD from NYU, and completed an internship at Yale. He has served on the board of directors of the Association of Health Care Journalists since 2002. That was also the year he began teaching medical writing in the SHERP Program at NYU. Oransky also holds an appointment at NYU Medical School as Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, and teaches at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism.

David L. Spector, Ph.D., Director of Research, and Head of the Gene Regulation Program of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center, has been a member of the CSHL faculty since 1985. Spector’s research centers on understanding the organization and regulation of gene expression in living cells. His laboratory’s work is focused on implementing innovative approaches to elucidate the spatial and temporal aspects of gene expression and in identifying and characterizing the function of nuclear retained large non-coding RNAs. An expert in microscopy, Spector also directs the Microscopy Shared Resource at CSHL. Spector has edited numerous microscopy techniques manuals that are used in laboratories throughout the world and he serves on the editorial board of Journal of Cell Science. In 2006 he received the Winship Herr Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Watson School of Biological Sciences.

Ron Sturm is a Senior Petrographer with CTLGroup, an engineering consulting firm in Skokie, Illinois. He received a BS degree in Geology from the University of Illinois in 1982. For the last 20+ years, he has applied microscopical techniques to the study of various types of geological and construction material to evaluate materials quality and durability and troubleshoot problems in construction. Sturm’s experience and expertise have been utilized in forensic engineering studies of structures damaged by earthquake, flood, explosion, or the effects of harsh environmental exposure conditions. Prominent projects include the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, damage resulting from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and the aftermath of the Northridge earthquake in Southern California. In addition to authoring thousands of reports related to damage or failed structures, he has provided expert witness testimony in numerous civil litigation cases. Sturm has also applied similar microscopical techniques to the study of historical structures as part of condition assessment and restoration projects, including the Berlin Wall, ancient Mayan ruins, the Erie Canal, and numerous monuments and historic structures in Washington D.C., Chicago, Miami, Kansas City, Cincinnati, and other locations across North America. Sturm has served as instructor for numerous education courses given by the Portland Cement Association and Federal Highway Administration related to microscopical and petrographic analyses of construction materials, and he has spoken at numerous professional society meetings, seminars, and conferences. Sturm is also an avid photographer and photomicrographer. In addition to his past contributions to the Small World calendars and exhibits, his photomicrography work has been published in numerous magazines, trade journals, newspapers, promotional literature, books, and a science textbook.

Michael Davidson is the director of the Optical and Magneto-Optical Imaging Center at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University. Involved with various aspects of microscopy for over 25 years, Davidson’s scientific interests include the packaging of DNA into virus heads, liquid crystallinity in biological systems and the adsorption of small liquid crystal molecules onto surfaces.

Davidson has authored many scientific articles on the subject of photomicrography and his photomicrographs have been published in more than a thousand national and international scientific journals, popular magazines and newspapers. In addition, Davidson’s photomicrography has won more than 40 awards in scientific and industrial photography competitions and has been exhibited at over 50 locations nationwide. He is also the expert behind the Nikon Instruments educational Web site MicroscopyU (which can be accessed through the Nikon Instruments Web site at www.nikoninstruments.com) and his own www.molecularexpressions.com.