Ava Chuppe
Staff Writer
achuppe@murraystate.edu
A team of faculty jurors announced the five winners of this year’s Images of Research Competition.
Biology major Gage Barnes earned first place and a $100 gift card to the University Bookstore with his entry, “An Osprey Successfully Catching Breakfast.”
The competition, an interdisciplinary contest organized by the Office of Research and Creative Activity (ORCA) for Fall Scholars Week, took place on Nov. 9. Each participant submitted up to three photos and a brief explanation of how each image related to the student’s overall research.
Barnes explained in the description that, unlike most other bird species, the osprey’s diet consists almost entirely of fish.
“This male osprey (Pandion haliaetus) successfully caught a Freshwater Drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) for breakfast,” Barnes said in the description. “As food provisioning is a necessary requirement for successfully rearing offspring, one component of my research looked at the amount of food delivered to the nest during behavioral observations.”
Wildlife and conservation biology major Michelle Weaver won second place and a $75 gift card with her entry, “Hidden Shell-Ter.” The title is a play on words, as the image features a turtle.
“While tracking the turtles that we are studying, sometimes it’s harder to spot them,” Weaver said. “We are studying the eastern box turtle and the effects relocation has on them. We use radio telemetry to track them.”
Agronomy major Reagan Newell took third place and a $50 gift card with “Surprising Soil 1.”
Newell said while some do not recognize the importance of soil, this does not negate its value.
“Soil provides the crops we eat with the nutrients to grow, and the very foundation for our way of life,” Newell said. “Numerous times in class, we have measured the pH of many soil sites to determine nutrient values and how they affect the growth and yield of our crops.”
Design engineering technology major Matthew Smith and wildlife and conservation biology major Emily Haner were awarded honorable mentions and won $25 gift cards with their respective entries, “First Flight” and “Tawny-edged Skipper.”
The entries came from a range of disciplines, including agricultural education, agronomy, biology, design engineering technology, fisheries/aquatic biology, occupational safety and health and wildlife conservation biology.
The variety of submissions made the contest unique, Dana Thompson, assistant professor of University Libraries, said.
“Thank you again for submitting your work for consideration,” Thompson said. “You’ve made an impact on the judges, and we look forward to seeing future submissions for the competition.”
Thompson commended participants for their work.
“Overall, the submitted work was engaging, visually stimulating and a good representation of the research going on at Murray State University,” Thompson said.
The award winners will have their work featured in this fall’s edition of “Steeplechase,” an ORCA student journal. The journal will be published in late November or early December as part of the Murray State Institutional Repository.
The winning photographs are on display in Steeplechase an ORCA student journal at https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/steeplechase/.