STFC has announced the winners of its 2012 Photowalk competition, which showcases some of the UK’s leading-edge science and world-class technical facilities.

More than 200 amateur and professional photographers took part across four STFC sites: the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) in Edinburgh, Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, the Chilbolton Observatory in Hampshire and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.

Dr Andrew Taylor, Executive Director National Laboratories said: “This second series of STFC Photowalks have been a tremendous success and the images produced help to capture a little of the incredible science that goes on at our sites in a fresh and exciting way. We’re sure that the winning photographs produced will fire imaginations and raise the profile of the fascinating work that’s carried out at our sites”.

Regional judging of the 2012 STFC Photowalk in October led to a shortlist of forty images. The public then voted online to decide which ten images were the most inspiring and spectacular. Over 1400 votes were received from members of the public and the following six winners were selected from that list by national and regional judging panels:

• National Winner - Trip to CERN. Mrs Lisa Ward won with a shot of the 25m Chilbolton dish antenna
• Daresbury Winner £250 Jessops vouchers. Mr Greg Harding
• RAL Winner £250 Jessops vouchers. Mr Vince Mo
• UKATC Winner £250 Jessops vouchers. Mr William Pain
• Chilbolton Winner £250 Jessops vouchers. Dr Roger Dingley            
• Online Winner £250 Jessops vouchers. Mrs Angela Davison

Overall winner Lisa Ward said “The Photowalk experience at STFC Chilbolton was hugely inspiring and I am grateful for the opportunity to take some wonderful photographs during my visit. I am thrilled and pleasantly surprised to have won and I hope that my image of the 25m dish at the Chilbolton Observatory captures a little of the essence of the antenna used to analyse extreme weather conditions”

Editorial and commercial photographer Max Alexander sat on the national judging panel and said: "The stunning winner of this year’s STFC Photowalk competition really does give a sense of looking down on our blue planet. It perfectly encapsulates the ground-breaking science undertaken in the UK, and places those endeavours in our cosmic habitat – no easy thing to do."

The winning photos can be viewed at: http://www.ukphotowalk.org.uk/

Thr Society is working with the STFC on a number of projects and supported the Photowalk competition with selectors and with the web platform used for uploading and selelecting images.