The Beauty and Breadth of NC State Research

August 21, 2025 Staff

our animal-processing tent overlooking the Peruvian Amazon at sunset.

For the past decade, the annual Envisioning Research contest has highlighted the beauty and importance of the work being done at the bench and in the field at NC State. In 2025, the competition commemorates its 10th year of celebrating scientific contributions captured visually by our students, faculty and staff.

Envisioning Research contest categories include photography, microscopy and data visualization/graphics. This year, the winning entries and honorable mentions revealed the breadth of the research happening at NC State and across the globe, from wide vistas to details revealed only with a microscope.

A drone video provided a bird’s-eye view of Yates Millpond, where a graduate student collects Spatterdock water lilies to understand the decline in bee populations. In India, a curious elephant sniffs a trap camera meant to capture the movements of carnivores like leopards and tigers. In a microscopic close-up, a somatic embryo formed on cell cultures resembles a tiny bouquet of yellow flowers. Using data visualization techniques in brilliant colors, an undergraduate student classified habitats on Bird Shoal Island in Beaufort, North Carolina, to identify patterns in shoreline changes over time. These are just a few examples of how our campus documented scientific exploration and discovery this past year.

The Envisioning Research competition is a collaborative effort involving NC State’s Office of Research and Innovation, The Graduate School, the NC State University Libraries, the Office of Undergraduate Research, and University Communications and Marketing.

Below is a collection of the winning entries and honorable mentions from the 2025 Envisioning Research competition.

Eelgrass and shoal grass. — Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Lindsay Curl. Research at the coast of North Carolina aims to understand species interactions in order to improve restoration success. Restoration initiatives have utilized both eelgrass and shoal grass to understand the relationship they will exhibit under stress. Different densities and species configurations will shed light on the possible facilitative or competitive interactions that may ensue.

Crystal Skipper stares at researcher while resting on their finger. — Faculty/Staff Photography, Honorable Mention. Doug Rouse. A Crystal Skipper (*Atrytonopsis quinteri)*, one of North Carolina’s endemic butterfly species, stares curiously at the researcher who just marked it. Research undertaken by the Applied Ecology department (PI: Elsa Youngsteadt and Carol Price) is aimed at establishing a rigorous and detailed surveying method for this unique butterfly, quantifying nectar connectivity in the patchy urban landscape, and assessing how Skipper populations can best be managed as the climate changes.

Rose somatic embryo formation — Faculty/Staff Microscopy, 2nd Place. Kedong Da. First time, somatic embryo formed on suspension culture of rose cells with multiple cotyledons like a flower.

Intertwined Powdery Mildew Fruiting Bodies — Faculty/Staff Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Andrew Paul. This image shows two spore-containing structures of *Erysiphe syringae*, which were collected in 1980 and have since been housed at the NC State Larry F. Grand Mycological Herbarium. The Powdery Mildew fungus produces spores within survival structures known as chasmothecia. Chasmothecia have unique appendages with intricate apices that are thought to be used to hook onto leaves or branches of infected plants and persist near their hosts until the conditions are right for germination. Their resilience has allowed them to be studied long after they were originally found.

Mineral Metropolises under the microscope — Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Mohammed Kayes Patoary. This image captures the intricate crystal patterns (on a micro level) left behind when a solution containing salts and additives was left to dry in open air. Our research explores how calcium-based minerals can be guided to grow in controlled ways, much like how bones (calcium phosphate) and shells (calcium carbonate) form in nature. We use a method that mimics these biological processes by keeping minerals in a liquid-like state just long enough to shape them before they harden. This technique has the potential to create advanced materials for applications ranging from medical implants to sustainable textiles. What you see here isn’t just chemistry; it’s a glimpse into how science can replicate nature’s artistry.

Making maize pollination crosses — Faculty/Staff Photography, 1st Place. Rubén Rellán-Álvarez. The NC State Central Crops Research Station has witnessed the creation of many plant mapping populations that are used all around the world. The picture shows a corn nursery with a tassel bag collecting pollen to make crosses as part of a new mapping population that uses an extensive collection of maize wild relatives.

The evolution of mimicry in longhorn beetles (square) — Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, Honorable Mention. Kenneth Geisert. Beetles represent the largest order of insects with over 420,000 described species, ranging from 0.015 – 8 inches. Their incredible diversity makes them an ideal model system for studying evolutionary questions, such as how mimicry evolves. This graphic highlights the intersection of science, natural history museums, and science communication. Displayed above are seventy unique longhorn beetles from collections like the NC State Insect Museum and our many collaborators; all species are part of a tribe known for their exceptional mimicry of spiders, ants, and wasps. My research uses longhorn beetles to explore how mimicry evolves over time across varying species with different models. As you look from left to right, you can see a gradual shift from non-mimetic species to beetles that closely resemble ants, then to wasps. Each beetle represents a handheld manual focus stack of around 60 images, totaling approximately 4,200 images.

Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Haitao Qing. Manta rays propel themselves using wing-like pectoral fins, inspiring the development of soft swimming robots with speed, efficiency, and maneuverability. However, achieving all three simultaneously remains a major challenge, particularly with simple actuation and control. Here, we introduce a manta-inspired soft swimmer that harnesses a spontaneous snapping mechanism to overcome this limitation. Its monostable flapping wing is pneumatically actuated to snap downward instantly, and upon deflation, it passively snaps back to its initial state using elastic restoring force, without additional energy input. This streamlined actuation strategy simplifies the design and control while enabling record-breaking speeds of 6.8 body lengths per second, high energy efficiency, and exceptional maneuverability. Additionally, the swimmer’s resilience to collisions allows it to navigate complex underwater environments with ease, all controlled by a single-input actuation frequency.

Faculty/Staff Microscopy, 1st Place. Blake Kennedy. “Universal Porcelain” is one of a series of images created as part of an on-going project titled, “Material Landscapes: Ceramics at the Intersection of Art, Science, and Education.” This project is a collaboration between Dr. Jacob Jones, faculty member in Material Science and Engineering, and Blake Kennedy, Clay Studio Manager at the NCSU Crafts Center. The research involves capturing microscopic images of ceramic samples using a scanning electron microscope with the goals of understanding the physical structure of the material, the resulting chemistry present in the material after glaze firing, and generating images for editing into landscape compositions. The resulting images are both scientific information and visual art. In addition to the scientific and creative results of the research, Jones and Kennedy have designed a co-curricular activity for students in the MSE 445/545 course that explores and highlights the similarities of Art and Science through hands-on experiential learning. This experience reinforced course curriculum while offering students an opportunity to step outside the engineering lab and into the ceramics studio. Students were able to tap into their creativity, express ideas, and be challenged to relate the studio techniques to the industrial processes they were learning in class.

Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Sreekiran Raveendran Pillai. Scanning electron microscopy image of a single red blood cell (RBC) on an anti-thrombotic SLIC surface. The anti-thrombotic SLIC coating developed at the Kota research group facilitates minimum adhesion to blood components. On a substrate with our SLIC coating, a spot was found wherein a single RBC was attached. From a surface chemistry perspective, these SLIC surfaces are hydrophilic and can easily slide off blood droplets from the surface. Such surfaces with minimum blood component adhesion can be translated efficiently to biomedical devices, wherein device failure due to thrombosis is a major issue.

Peptide-Polymer Weaves in Molecular Space — Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, 2nd Place. Sabila Kader Pinky. This image shows the self-assembly of peptide-polymer amphiphiles, molecules made by combining short protein segments with synthetic polymers. In water, these molecules organize themselves into structured shapes without needing external force or instruction. The orange ribbons represent the protein parts, which fold into specific patterns. The pink spheres show the polymer parts, which group together to avoid contact with water. Researchers study these systems to better understand how molecules can be designed to build useful materials on their own. These structures are being explored for drug delivery, medical implants, and other nanotechnology applications. The ability to control structure at such a small scale is important for creating advanced materials and improving medical technologies.

Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, 1st Place. Lucille Rivera. Breakdown of nonwovens using UV exposure. UV exposure decreases the strength of polypropylene, leading to the breakage of the fibers.

Research Assistant Heidi Segars controls the robot. — Faculty/Staff Photography, 2nd Place. Anne Collins McLaughlin. Over two weeks of field exercises, researchers from the Human Factors Psychology program, in collaboration with faculty from the United States Military Academy, studied how military trainees adopt and use a quadrupedal robotic teammate. Working in the forests, fields, and structures of the West Point training grounds, the team captured trainees’ attitudes toward the robot before and after hands-on experience with its capabilities and limitations. The project offered a rare look at how trust in robotic systems develops under realistic operational pressures. In this photo, Research Assistant Heidi Segars controls the robot at the direction of a Cadet Platoon Leader, while trainees conduct a reconnaissance mission amid simulated gunfire and smoke grenades.

Microscopic View of Dog Brain — Undergraduate Student Microscopy, 2nd Place. Elijah Cornatzer. We study dogs with a condition called Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome (CCDS), which is very similar to Alzheimer’s Disease in humans. Dogs show memory loss, confusion, behavioral changes, and more. We study what and how the inflammation is happening in the brain and how that relates to memory loss and cognitive dysfunction in dogs.

Concrete Beam Subjected to Extreme Loads — Faculty/Staff Graphics, 2nd Place. Giorgio Proestos. This image shows compression strains in a large concrete beam being tested to failure, similar to beams used in high-rise buildings or bridges. Strain refers to how much the material deforms under load. The image highlights areas where the concrete is compressing the most at a single applied load. The highest strain occurs near the center of the beam, where the load is applied, and the beam transfers that load diagonally outward to the supports at each end. The distribution of strain reveals how the concrete resists failure. This type of testing helps engineers understand how structural elements perform under extreme conditions, providing valuable insight into safety, design limits, and material behavior. It’s a clear visual demonstration of how large concrete beams carry and distribute heavy loads through compression.

three radar satellite images from Kara Strait, Russia — Faculty/Staff Graphics, 1st Place. Josh Gray. This psychedelic scene depicts an area near the Kara Strait, Russia. Three different images from a radar satellite (Sentinel-1), all from January but in different years, are combined. Colored areas are places that were different between the three dates. In this case, the differences are caused by the amount and location of sea ice. Sea ice in the Arctic has been declining over the past several decades. Radar satellite images like this help us measure these changes over vast spaces and over long time periods.

Former graduate students Sailaja Pappala, RJ Sussman, and Rachael McCaully set up filtration system and collect water samples and hydrochemistry parameters from the proglacial meltwater system of the Matanuska Glacier in SW Alaska — Faculty/Staff Photography, Honorable Mention. Carli Arendt. Former graduate students (from left to right) Sailaja Pappala (Earth PhD ’23), RJ Sussman (Marine MS ’21), and Rachael McCaully (Earth MS ’19) set up a filtration system and to collect water samples and hydrochemistry parameters from the proglacial meltwater system of the Matanuska Glacier in SW Alaska (July 2019).

street flooding at a North Carolina beach — Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, 1st Place. Jenna Kraemer. Coastal communities are experiencing more frequent tidal flooding as sea levels rise, with floodwaters entering streets and stormwater systems during high tides. This research examines bacterial contamination in floodwaters from tidal floods in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Over six sampling events, researchers tested floodwater from a residential drive and adjacent waterway for fecal indicator bacteria, human and dog fecal DNA markers, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Every sample contained antibiotic-resistant bacteria, an urgent global health concern. The presence of fecal and antibiotic-resistant bacterial contamination in floodwaters raises public health concerns for affected communities, especially as residents, tourists, and pets frequently walk, drive, or play in these waters, increasing their risk of exposure to harmful bacteria. These findings can help guide targeted strategies to reduce contamination and protect public health.

Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Madigan Petri. Despite being one of the strongest materials ever created, carbon fiber and other high-performance materials begin like most synthetic textile fibers in the form of plastic beads. These particular polymer beads are made of a modified polymer with a structure designed to create stronger and more processible carbon fiber. Once the beads are spun into fibers and treated at high temperatures, the polymer degrades and links together to form a graphite-like structure, similar to what is used in pencils. This material takes advantage of carbon’s ability to form strong bonds with itself, giving carbon fiber its characteristic strength. Although the process to make carbon fiber is well-defined, the material lags far behind its theoretical capacity. Material development to close that gap begins at the polymer stage where the structure is carefully altered to continue pushing the boundaries of high-performance materials.

crystal display under microscope — Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Alejandro Valdes and Sanjay Kalliat. X-ray crystallography is vital for determining molecular structures when other characterization methods yield ambiguous results. Successful X-ray analysis starts with harvesting high-quality crystals, which are identified under polarized light, where true crystals shine and amorphous solids fade. In this photo, a lucky day in the lab captured a stunning crystal display, perfect for X-ray data collection and a visual spectacle under the microscope.

Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, Honorable Mention. Sergei Rigin. Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, 1st Place. Sergei Rigin. The image is a snapshot from a molecular dynamics simulation of a Janus particle, named after the Roman god with two faces. The particle’s surface is partially functionalized with outward-reaching polymer chains that resemble the iris of an eye, while the non-functionalized region remains exposed, forming a dark pupil. This unique asymmetry enables selective, programmable interactions and directional movement, making Janus particles a powerful tool for designing smart, responsive nanomaterials.

site visit with team to oyster farm in Beaufort, North Carolina — Undergraduate Student, 1st Place. Perry Berlin. Currently, oyster farms are at risk of contamination by bird guano. This research seeks to limit contamination risk by implementing a physical barrier between birds and the floating bags the oysters are grown in. In order to better understand the process of oyster farming before initial design, a site visit was performed at a local oyster farm in Beaufort North Carolina. This sight visit allowed the team to gage the needs of oyster farmers and discuss potential solutions for the bird landing issue. A new device was then created to create a netted barrier that physically keeps the coastal birds from accessing the oyster bags. These new systems are complete with custom hooks attached to buoys, and various nets surrounding individual bags. For future work, a larger scale system will be created to house entire rows of bags under a single net.

Faculty/Staff Photography, Honorable Mention Christopher Heim. NCSU sophomore Ben Pierce pollinates loblolly pine flowers from an aerial lift at the Arrowhead Breeding Center in Cochran, Georgia, during spring break in 2025. Flowers only grow at the top of the tree, so a pine breeder can’t be afraid of heights! Flowers are carefully bagged to prevent contamination from ambient pollen. Seed produced from this research will be planted from Virginia to Alabama to evaluate genetic potential across a wide range of environments.

Kauai drainage basins map — Graduate Student/Postdoc Graphics, 1st Place. Olivia Schladt. Drainage basins–areas of land that flow to the same place–are constantly reshaping themselves to reach steady-state. This process happens all over the world, but can be seen clearly on the island of Kauai. Chi analysis gives rivers a ‘score’ based on factors like elevation and their drainage area. Higher chi values indicate a younger river that has not experienced much erosion and has more gentle slopes. Since drainage divides (the boundaries that separate one drainage basin from another) move from areas of low to high chi, mapping these values can help us predict how rivers compete with each other to reach equilibrium.

Dendritic Solidification of Nickel Titanium 3D printed Alloy — Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, Honorable Mention. Arnab Chatterjee. Looks like Fall colours right? Actually it is an inner structure inside the metal/ alloy used to make the Stents of your heart or braces of your teeth — an of course! the wheels of the MARS Rover of NASA.

Crystal Structure of a Cyclometalated Platinum (II) Complex — Undergraduate Student Microscopy, 1st Place. Brent Curlis. This image shows a series of red crystals produced by the aggregation of a cyclometalated platinum (II) complex captured using a confocal microscope. This particular platinum (II) complex can form two different crystal structures that have either a red or yellow emission and can transition between these two structures depending on solvent as well as other conditions. The goal is to manipulate the structure of these crystals in a reproducible manner and eliminate the presence of the less stable yellow form.

Angiogenic Sprouting in a Pancreatic Cancer Microphysiological System — Graduate Student/Postdoc Microscopy, 2nd Place. Will Blackledge. Organ-on-chips are a class of microphysiological systems (MPS) which aim to model organs and organ systems with high degrees of control and physiological relevance. This MPS models a blood vessel through a three-dimensional extracellular matrix (ECM) of collagen and pancreatic cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), which are the primary ECM-producing cells in the body. CAFs can dramatically influence pancreatic cancer disease progression, with CAF subtypes able to promote or restrain tumor growth. This image shows the dramatic result of a blood vessel exposed to tumor-promoting CAF with long blood vessel ‘sprouts’ in cyan immediately apparent. Angiogenic sprout formation is a hallmark cancer development feature, which increases blood supply to the tumor and allows for easier metastasis. Also present are monocytes in yellow, a vital immune cell being recruited to the tumor-promoting environment. The end goal of this research is to identify functional differences (immune recruitment, angiogenesis, etc) between tumor-promoting and tumor-restraining CAFs.

View from the top of a Mayan temple used as the Rebel Alliance Base in Star Wars: A New Hope — Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Ana Cubas-Baez. From the top of a Mayan temple used as the Rebel Alliance Base in Star Wars: A New Hope, this photo captures the dense tropical forests of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén, Guatemala. Beyond its cinematic fame, the region is home to vibrant conservation efforts. My research analyzes the impacts of forest-based climate change mitigation strategies, specifically REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), for which I interviewed key stakeholders, including project developers and community leaders, to understand their perceptions of challenges and opportunities, impacts, and lessons learned from these initiatives. My work highlights how local voices and community-based forest management are critical to protecting forests not only for carbon storage and biodiversity but also for culture, livelihoods, and resilience in the face of climate change.

inside the KSTAR tokamak — Graduate Student/Postdoc Photography, Honorable Mention. Paula Valentina Alarcon. Venturing into the heart of fusion! Inside the KSTAR tokamak, where the magic happens, perfecting a real-time feedback loop for the impurity powder dropper to help make the future of energy even brighter.

Bird Shoal Habitat Classification — Undergraduate Student, 1st Place. Evelynn Wilcox. Over the past 60 years, Bird Shoal at the Rachel Carson Reserve has undergone dramatic shifts in both shoreline and habitat. The causes of these changes remain uncertain, yet their impacts could seriously affect nearby coastal communities. This project investigates what might be driving these changes, aiming to support better planning and protection efforts. In this image, we use habitat classification – a method of mapping different habitat types – to clearly identify ground habitats at Bird Shoal. This allows us not only to track changes in current conditions but also to compare with past and future images. By spotting patterns over time, we can better understand how habitat shifts relate to shoreline movement and what that might mean for the future of this coastline.

Faculty/Staff Video, 1st Place. Heather Frantz. Research technician Em Trentham peacefully paddleboards on Yates Millpond, collecting Spatterdock water lily (Nuphar advena) for their pollen.

Trentham is assisting Applied Ecology graduate student April Sharp. Sharp is studying Crithidia bombi, a fecal-orally transmitted parasite that may contribute to world-wide bee declines. Just as humans pick up germs from unwashed hands, bees become infected with Crithidia bombi by coming in contact with contaminated flowers. Sharp suspects that a bee’s diet, specifically pollen, may play an important role in reducing infection intensity. Previous studies show that sunflower pollen reduces bee infection, but the reason is unknown. Sharp’s research will further our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the medicinal properties of pollen.

Music: Sunset Dream by Cheel

Undergraduate Student Video, 2nd Place. Jay Dakiwas. If dementia were a country, it would be the world’s 17th-largest economy. The cases are expected to rise from the current approximation of 55 million people worldwide to 139 million by 2050. It is known that Alzheimer’s Disease is correlated to neuron loss caused by neuroinflammation, but its mechanism is not yet known. Our hypothesis is that a molecule in the cells called TAK1 causes neuroinflammation. We focus on one brain cell type that supports neurons, called oligodendrocytes. My goal is to determine the role of TAK1 in oligodendrocytes in neuroinflammatory conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease. We utilized multiple methods to examine whether and how OLG TAK1 affects oligodendrocytes, and one of them is visualizing and recording cell growth under the microscope.

Graduate Student/Postdoc Video, 1st Place. Farimah Moazzam. The cochlea, a tiny, spiral-shaped organ deep within the inner ear, plays a critical role in our ability to hear. This video captures the beauty and complexity of the cochlea using advanced microscopy techniques. The glowing pink structures are sensory hair cells, which convert sound vibrations into electrical signals that the brain can understand. Our research explores how drugs can travel through this delicate spiral to reach the cells most in need of treatment. By visualizing these structures in high detail, we aim to develop more effective therapies for hearing loss and inner ear disorders. This video reveals not only the elegance of nature’s design, but also the exciting intersection of science, technology, and medicine.

Undergraduate Student, 1st Place. Breyton Hill. Courtship is not just a question of pursuit, but of perception, of knowing who to choose and how to act. The doublesex neurons in fruit flies help make these often-complex decisions. Some doublesex neurons perceive signals from the opposite sex, such as pheromones and mating songs. Other doublesex neurons cause male- or female-specific behaviors, like a male singing to a female, or a female accepting the advances of a male. Here, the colors of the neurons and their intricate branching patterns indicate their depth within the brain, with portions deeper within the brain in purple and pink and more shallow regions in yellow. This 3-D brain of a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) illuminates a silent symphony that reveals the hidden architecture of attraction at a microscopic level.

Graduate Student/Postdoc Video, 2nd Place. Kushagra Meshram. Camera trapping in areas where elephants live is full of surprises. With our pilot camera trapping survey in the periphery of Corbett National Park, India, we plan to understand animal distribution and movement of large mammals in the Wild – Urban Interface (WUI) areas. While we primarily use it to capture carnivores like leopards and tigers, our camera trap captured a curious and kind matriarch who sniffed it and thankfully did not crush it.

Graduate Student/Postdoc Video, Honorable Mention. Bethany Wager. A full day of field work is captured in this short film where graduate students partner with The American Saltwater Guides Association and New England Aquarium to catch and acoustically tag False Albacore (Euthynnus alletteratus). Video edited for length.

This post was originally published in NC State News.

The Beauty and Breadth of NC State Research

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