°µĶų³Ō¹Ļās annual Ed and Barbara Hajim Art of Science Competition showcases how scientific discovery takes visual form across disciplines.
More than 50 students, faculty, and staff submitted artwork in the 2026 , the ās annual contest to explore and illuminate the aesthetic beauty that results when science, art, and technology intersect. Three winning entries will be permanently displayed in theĀ .
Held each spring, the competition is sponsored by the in collaboration with and supported through an endowed fund established by Trustee Emeritus Ed Hajim ā58 and his wife Barbara. Prizes are awarded for the top student submissions and for the Peopleās Choice Award, with more than 500 members of the University of Rochester community casting votes.
First Place and Peopleās Choice Award
For the second consecutive year, the judges and the University of Rochester community voters selected the same top entry. Political science student Matthew Ahn ā28 took home both first place and the Peopleās Choice Awardātotaling $1,250āfor his hand-drawn ink illustration titled The Architecture of Knowledge. Ahn says his ornate artwork featuring clocks, mechanical systems, geometric networks, and symbolic forms is intended to represent the structural layers of scientific discovery.
āThe lower sections evoke instruments used to measure time and motion, while the upper sections introduce increasingly complex geometric and interconnected systems,ā he says. āEach layer reflects how scientific knowledge builds progressively upon previous discoveries. The symmetry and intricate patterns invite viewers to explore the drawing at multiple scales, revealing new details much like scientific observation itself.ā
Second Place
Physics PhD student Meg Farinsky was the runner-up withĀ Luminous Gills,Ā her macro photograph of the gills on the underside of a pink oyster mushroom illuminated by grow lights. She photographed the home-grown culinary mushrooms using a 100 mm Rokinon macro lens on a Canon 5D Mark III camera.
āMushroomsāpink oysters in particularāare attracting a lot of scientific interest right now,ā says Farinsky. āTheyāre being studied for applications in bioremediation and plastic degradation, sustainable food, and material production, and electrical signaling in fungal networks that resembles neural activity. Beyond their scientific relevance, their glowing gills and sculptural forms make them naturally compelling visual subjects.ā
Third Place
Majd Tabsi ā29, a biomedical engineering major, earned a place on the podium withĀ Strings of Lifeāa creative representation of DNA and gene editing using about a mile of string. Tabsi sketched a design and input it into software called MyZigzagArt, which uses an algorithm to generate a sequence of string passes to create a representation of the sketch. He made a circle of 250 nails on a 2 x 2 foot piece of wood and, over the course of 30 hours, made 2,500 string passes from one nail to another to produce the final artwork.
āHumanity has always wondered about how life is created and how traits are passed,ā says Tabsi. āMendelās discovery of the laws of heredity started the ever-growing field of genetics. We later learned about the smallest strings that hold the keys to our evolution and the continuity of lifeāDNA, or what my work calls ‘Strings of Life.’ We sought to map them, understand their construction, and even started trying to edit them using tools like CRISPR-Cas9, which is what the separated gene in my work refers to. Tools like these raise a variety of questions around the ethicality and the limitations of usage. But they also show what humanity is capable of. And the question remains: What will we do next?ā
