University of Wisconsin Physicist Wins Photography Award from the National Science Foundation

Pupa Gilbert, a professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin. received top honors in the 2012 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Science magazine.

Professor Gilbert’s winning image, seen below, was a photograph taken by an electron microscope of the forming end of a sea urchin’s tooth. The colors were added so that the individual microscopic crystals can be easily seen. The teeth of sea urchins are so hard that they can gnaw holes in rocks so the sea urchins can hide.

Professor Gilbert has been on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin since 1999. She holds a Ph.D. in physics from the First University of Rome.