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Diatoms are tiny, silica-shelled phytoplankton. Not only are they an important part of marine ecosystems and useful tools for studying past climate – this Asteromphalus flabellatus proves that they are also amazingly beautiful!

The Micropalaeontological Society is delighted to announce the winner of the 2020 Micropalaeontology Image Competition!

The overall image winner was submitted by Isabel Dove from the University of Rhode Island – Graduate School of Oceanography, with a beautiful image of the diatom species Asteromphalus flabellatus. Not only does Isabel win the competition’s first prize of €200, but her image is also included on the front cover of our TMSoc2021 Calendar (see below for ordering details)!

On behalf of the Society we would like to congratulate Isabel on her success. Eleven additional winners were selected from the fantastic submissions, and are on display below! A wide variety of microfossils and imaging techniques have been championed this year, and we are already looking forward to next year’s competition.

The twelve winning images have been incorporated into the 2021 Micropalaeontology Calendar, which is now available for purchase! Like last year, the calendar has been produced in spiral-bound A4 landscape format with one page per month.

Additional winners

Odysseas Archontikis and Jeremy Young, University of Oxford and University College London

Hilary H. Birks, University of Bergen, Norway

Damián Cárdenas, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Dimitris Evangelinos, Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra – CSIC – Universidad de Granada

Sahina Gazi, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, India

Hannah Hartung, University of Cologne

Susan Richardson, Florida Atlantic University

Mariem Saavedra-Pellitero, University of Birmingham

Nicolai Schleinkofer, Goethe University, Frankfurt

Yan Yu Ting, Earth Observatory of Singapore

Pricing Table

Buy a Calendar

Select postage option:

Post to UK £20.00 GBP Post outside UK £24.00 GBP

As a society which has members globally, TMS denounces racism in all its forms and stands in firm support and solidarity with our Black & Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) Community Members, colleagues and friends – wherever in the world you might be. We stand with you, we thank you, we see you, we hear you.

TMS welcomes all comments and feedback about our initiatives & events, to create a more equitable, diverse, accessible and inclusive TMS (more soon) and to start and continue conversations about how we can best support everybody in the community, ongoing action is needed.

If you are interested to learn more, and about how you can support the Black and BIPOC community, The Paleontological Society has compiled a great list of resources, which we encourage you to look at: https://www.paleosoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Paleontological-Society-How-to-Be-an-Anti-Racism-Ally.pdf .

#BlackLivesMatter

2019 will be the fifth year The Micropalaeontological Society will be running the Microfossil Image Competition. The outstanding success of the last four years is reflected by the creation of our annual Micropalaeontology Calendar! Each year, the calendars have required two print runs and have sold out! A summary of the winning images can be found here (2014, 2015 2016, 2017, 2018) whilst a Flickr archive of all submitted images can be found here.

We would like to continue this success and The Micropalaeontological Society is therefore pleased to announce the start of the 2019/20 Image Competition. All TMS members are invited to submit images of microfossils. Non-members are also encouraged to take part. An overall winning image will be selected and eleven joint runner-up images will be chosen for use in a TMS calendar for 2020.

We will be accepting images until 30th September 2019 at 2359 Pacific Standard Time. This will provide the competition panel sufficient time to select the best 12 images for the calendar, get the calendar designed and subsequently printed in time for distribution towards the end of the year.

All images are judged by the TMS committee (mix of early career and senior scientists from a variety of institutions), however not all committee members take part – only those who are able to. We give committee members a choice to participate, as it is recognised that competition judging is external to their main committee role. Thus this activity is made fully inclusive i.e. personal and caring responsibilities are taken into account. Images are all anonymised to ensure the judging process is fair and free from bias. The judging process in general will be double blind (the panel is never announced publicly)

Image submissions should be of micropalaeontology-related material. The subject can be an individual specimen or an assemblage and it can be a fossil or a living organism from a microfossil producing group. The type of image is also entirely open, and can include microscope photographs (reflected light, compound), SEM images or other innovative visual techniques, or more traditional artwork. Micropalaeo-geochem hybrid scientists are most welcome to send in images.

Twelve winning images will be selected for the calendar, with one image being chosen as the overall winner of the 2019/20 Image Competition! The winner will receive €200. All twelve winners will of course receive free copies of the calendar in addition to a certificate!

The society will print a fixed number of these calendars in the first instance, with additional print runs possible depending on demand. The society will charge a small fee for the purchase of a calendar – the price is to be confirmed but will be kept low, with all proceeds contributing towards supporting TMSoc activities. Prices will be around £10 (UK), £12 (EU) and £14 (International). Prices include postage.

Images should be submitted via this form https://forms.gle/ZjpLLqMpK4pMsMzM6 OR via email (Download Form Here). Please put TMS Calendar Competition Submission as the subject title.

Submissions should be high-resolution (300dpi) JPEG or TIFF files (less than 20mb).  If you have any problems please contact us.

– Your image blurb should be easily understood by a member of the public (test out your blurb on a family member if you aren’t sure!)

– Do not include anything within the blurb which might identify you, for example an sample site, or laboratory location that your image was taken in. If you are selected as a winner you will be able to refine your blurb, this is just a precaution we are taking to make sure the judging process is fully anonymised.