Thank you for those who participated in the UF Water Institute’s 2023 Photo Contest and congratulations to our five winners! The winners will each receive a $100 prize. All photo entries may be used on UF Water Institute’s websites, printed materials, and social media accounts. A photo credit will be given whenever a photo is used for these purposes.
The UF Water Institute’s 2023 Photo Contest Winners are:
Education
Adam Siders
Soil, Water, and Ecosystems Sciences
“An undergraduate scientist (Katie Schoenberger) is pictured standing on the bank of Sweetwater Branch Creek downstream of the Main Street Water Reclamation Facility draining downtown Gainesville, FL. The scientist is pictured dislodging ceramic tiles from a cinder block. These tiles were incubated in stream for three months to allow for an autotrophic biofilm to develop. The tiles were then returned to the lab where we performed an incubation focused on quantifying nitrogen uptake and assimilation by autotrophic biofilms and to test the relative bioavailabilites of urea and ammonium. This research was designed and developed by Katie and is the foundation of her honor’s thesis.”
Extension
Vivek Sharma
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
“Thermal image of Florida Stakeholder Engagement Program (STEP) corn contest plots representing the impact of irrigation on canopy temperature. The image represents how different grower teams manage irrigation. Darker colored plots represents the plots recently received irrigation.”
Research
Jon Martin
Geological Sciences
“Members of the 2019 WIGF cohort sample water and sediments from the Akuliarusiarsuup River, Greenland near the discharge point of water draining from the Russell outlet glacier of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Research goals include evaluating how past ice sheet retreat has influenced nutrient and greenhouse gas fluxes to improve predictive models of effects of future ice retreat in a warming world.”
At Large
Aditya Singh
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
“This picture was taken while conducting fieldwork for a NASA-funded project focused on relating regional land cover change to patterns of food insecurity across India. While accessibility and availability of water underpin livelihoods and health globally, the immense socio-cultural importance of water is often unrecognized. Here, crowds throng the ‘Ganga Arati’ (worship of the holy Ganges) performed daily at Haridwar in the Himalayan foothills.”
Ricardo Lesmes-Vesga
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
“Our “honorary team member”, a gator mom that keeps an eye on one of the staff gauges installed at one of the canals at the Everglades Research and Education Center (Belle Glade) next to an experimental sugarcane field, while watches over her babies, which were not disturbed at all by the staff gauges.”