Editor’s note: This article has been edited with updated information about the Global Physics Photowalk.
The first place photo from the 2018 Fermilab Photowalk, taken by Ken Wickham of St. Charles, IL
On July 28, nearly 50 professional and amateur photographers from the Midwest and beyond were invited behind the scenes at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Cameras in hand, they were granted access to locations on the Fermilab site not usually accessible by the public, and they emerged with photographs that capture the fascinating science happening at one of the world’s premier particle physics laboratories.
Now the winning photos from Fermilab’s Photowalk have been chosen and will be entered into the international Global Physics Photowalk sponsored by the Interactions collaboration. The winning images were selected by a three-member jury and whittled down from 196 submissions. The top images offer a different perspective of visually interesting locations on the Fermilab site.
The top photos are now available to view online.
The winning photo, an overhead shot of a sculpture known as the Mobius Strip, was taken from the 15th floor of Fermilab’s Wilson Hall by Ken Wickham of St. Charles, Illinois. The second-place photo offers a unique view of the inside of the atrium of Wilson Hall and was taken by Ted Trimble of Elgin, Illinois. Rounding off the top three is a shot of the pi-shaped poles that bring power to the Fermilab site, snapped by David Berg of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The second-place photo from the 2018 Fermilab Photowalk, taken by Ted Trimble of Elgin, IL.
July’s event was the fourth Fermilab Photowalk and the first since 2015. The Fermilab event is part of the Global Physics Photowalk, organized by the Interactions collaboration and hosted this summer at 17 labs around the world. This year’s event features labs and institutions in Australia, Europe and Asia, as well as four (Fermilab, Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California) in the United States.
The global competition opened on Monday, Aug. 27, and includes a public vote as well as a juried selection. Each laboratory has entered its top three images into the global contest, and a public online vote will choose the top three, while a panel of expert photographers and scientists will also choose their three favorites. Read more about voting online, or go directly to www.interactions.org.
Fermilab is America’s premier national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. A U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, Fermilab is located near Chicago, Illinois, and operated under contract by the Fermi Research Alliance LLC, a joint partnership between the University of Chicago and the Universities Research Association, Inc. Visit Fermilab’s website at www.fnal.gov and follow us on Twitter at @Fermilab.
The DOE Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.