Nobel Prizes are not the only awards given in Stockholm these day. Karolinska Institute also gives an annual Lennart Nilsson Award for photography. This year's prize has just been announced and I am happy to report that the recepient is a friend of mine (and Scifoo camper), Felice Frankel for her amazing science photography. From the Press Release:
Felice Frankel, a scientific imagist and researcher at Harvard University's Initiative in Innovative Computing, has been named the recipient of the 2007 Lennart Nilsson Award. Frankel was sited for creating images that are exquisite works of art and crystal-clear scientific illustrations - both fascinating and valuable to the general public and scientific community alike.
The Lennart Nilsson Award is given out annually in honour of the internationally celebrated Karolinska Institutet photographer. As with the Swedish photographer's own images, Felice Frankel's work reveals previously invisible aspects of the world in unique, novel ways. Her subjects range from nanotechnology to magnetism and the surface tension of water droplets.
"In studying Ms. Frankel's work, I recognize my own way of looking at the world. We share the same passion for using images to explain and communicate science," says Lennart Nilsson.
In selecting Felice Frankel, the board of the Lennart Nilsson Foundation stated: "Those viewing Ms. Frankel's images are initially captivated by their form and colour. No sooner is their curiosity aroused than they want to know what the photograph depicts. She has thus fulfilled a scientific reporter's paramount task: to awaken people's interest and desire to learn."
Felice Frankel began her academic career in biology, but then moved on to architectural and landscape photography. During a fellowship year at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, she turned once again to science, beginning work in her present specialty. Today, she is a Senior Research Fellow at the Initiative in Innovative Computing at Harvard University and also holds an appointment as a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Throughout her professional life, Felice Frankel has worked to make visual imagery a key tool in scientific communication. Her photographs, like Nilsson's, have often been reproduced on the covers of leading science magazines like Nature and Science. She writes a regular column in American Scientist, and has published a series of books. Her latest -- Envisioning Science: The Design and Craft of the Science Image (MIT Press, 2002) -- is a guide to creating visual scientific images that convey research to a wider audience. Felice Frankel lectures regularly about scientific photography and new methods of using images to improve the teaching of science.
The Lennart Nilsson Award was established in 1998 and is administered by Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. The Award of 100,000 SEK (approximately 15,600 USD) will be presented in Berwaldhallen concert hall in Stockholm on the first of November 2007. The occasion will also host the annual installation of professors at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden's largest centre for medical research and training and the home of the Nobel Assembly. Lennart Nilsson will be present at the ceremony.
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