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At the University of Calgary, research does not stay confined to the page. In the 2026 , it stepped into the frame.  

The annual competition invited graduate students to present their work through compelling visuals, using images that reflected their research and its broader meaning, while also capturing the attention of judges and viewers.

Hosted by the , the competition challenges graduate students to submit a single image alongside a plain-language abstract for non-specialist audiences. The result is a collection that brings the range of graduate research into sharp focus, with entries spanning portrait-inspired visuals, field-based photography, textured illustration and digitally generated scenes. Each submission offered its own way of seeing, reminding viewers that research can be rigorous, imaginative and deeply resonant, all at once. 

“This competition gives our graduate students an opportunity to think differently about how they communicate their research,” says , PhD, dean and vice-provost of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. “Clear and engaging communication is central to this work, and I am continually impressed by the creativity and care our students bring to it. I congratulate all of this year’s participants.”

Spotlighting standout submissions

The winners were announced on Feb. 23 during a ceremony at the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking. A panel of expert judges reviewed 35 submissions and selected the recipients based on image quality, originality and how well the abstract connected the visual to the research story.

The judging panel included Calgary artist Michael Lupypciw; Dr. Aoife Mac Namara, PhD, former dean of the ; and Dr. Jonathan Petrychyn, PhD, assistant professor of film studies at the University of Regina. Their combined expertise in visual art, academic leadership and media analysis shaped the final selections.

A total of $2,200 in prizes was awarded. First-place recipients in each category received $500, second-place winners earned $200, and the People’s Choice Award carried a $100 prize. Honourable mentions were also presented to recognize additional submissions that stood out for their clarity, creativity and impact.

And the winners are...

• Photographic/Analog/Illustration Winner: Diana Mombayeva, PhD student, Faculty of Arts
• Photographic/Analog/Illustration Second Place (Illustration) Winner: Santanu Dutta, PhD student, Werklund School of Education
• Photographic/Analog/Illustration Second Place (Photographic) Winner: Anurag, PhD student, Faculty of Arts
• Digital Generated Winner: Izza Babar, master’s student, Cumming School of Medicine
• Digital Generated Second-Place Winner: Weng Sam Siu, PhD student, Cumming School of Medicine
• Artificial Intelligence Generated Winner: Laura Budd, PhD student, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
• Artificial Intelligence Generated Second-Place Winner: Gengyan Tang, PhD student, Werklund School of Education
• People’s Choice Award: Naomi Chege, PhD student, Faculty of Science
• Honourable Mention: Megha Sanyal, PhD student, Werklund School of Education
• Honourable Mention: Fateme Ejaredar, PhD student, Faculty of Arts

The stories behind the images

For this year’s top category winners, the competition offered more than a final image. It gave them a chance to think carefully about how to share research with people outside their field. Each winner approached that task in a different way, shaped by both their topic and their medium.

Digital Generated category winner, Izza Babar, BCR'24, a second-year Master of Science student in Community Health Sciences in the , used the competition to extend the public reach of her work on older adults and their companion animals. Supervised by , PhD, and , MD, she saw the experience to build stronger knowledge-translation skills and move beyond standard academic formats. 

“Through this competition, I was able to enhance my knowledge-translation skills and learn how to create research outputs for the general public, moving beyond the typical poster presentations,” Babar says.

For Laura Budd, the challenge centred on control, precision and medium. The third-year PhD student in veterinary medical sciences in the , supervised by , PhD, chose Midjourney to create her Artificial Intelligence Generated category-winning image, but getting the scene right took persistence. 

She wanted pathogens to appear as glowing particles around the mice, not scattered randomly across the frame, and had to refine her prompts repeatedly to achieve that effect. “Through trial and error, I learned quite a bit about writing prompts to an AI image-generation tool and how to modify those prompts when the images weren’t quite matching my vision,” Budd says.

Photographic/Analog/Illustration winner Diana Mombayeva, MA'20, a first-year PhD student in anthropology in the , used the competition to reflect on how research can be shared in a way that feels immediate and human. Supervised by , PhD, her work examines the intersections of farming, climate change, markets and cultural identity in Kazakhstan. 

The experience helped Mombayeva see that strong research communication can begin with a single moment and a clear point of view. As she puts it, “The right — perhaps even brilliant — photo or idea may already be within your reach, waiting for you to be bold enough to embrace it.”

The Faculty of Graduate Studies extends its congratulations to all the 2026 Images of Research winners and thanks all participants for being a part of this year’s competition.  of winning submissions over the years.