The national and regional winning photographs taken during November’s first-ever STFC Photowalks have been announced. 

The successful photographers faced challenges from around 200 other amateur and professional photographers.  The photowalks provided unprecedented access to leading-edge science and world-class technical facilities at three STFC sites: the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) in Edinburgh, Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.

The following winners were selected by national and regional judging panels:

•    Overall national winner and UK ATC regional winner: Stuart McIntyre for his shot of laser light reflecting from a lipstick-sized autonomous robot developed to position mirrors in instruments that will be used in future large telescopes. Stuart wins £600 of vouchers to buy photographic equipment.

•    Daresbury Laboratory regional winner: Michael Coe for his shot of a spectrometer at the National Centre for Electron Spectroscopy and Surface Analysis. Michael wins £100 of vouchers.

•    Rutherford Appleton Laboratory regional winner:  Micky Thompson for his shot of a cold load calibration target manufactured for one of the radio telescopes in the Atacama Large Millimeter Array located in northern Chile. Micky wins £100 of vouchers.

An additional prize was awarded to:

•    Winner of the online public vote: Eric Begbie for his shot of a 36-inch telescope at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh (home of the UK ATC). Eric receives £200 of vouchers.

National winner Stuart McIntyre says: “I’m absolutely thrilled to win and certainly wasn’t expecting it! The whole Photowalk experience was incredibly inspiring. Hopefully my photo captures just a little of the excitement and enthusiasm that really shone through on the day as the UK ATC scientists explained their work to us.”

Professor Ralph Jacobson from The Royal Photographic Society, who sat on the national judging panel, says: "We were extremely impressed with the overall very high standard of the photographs, especially in view of the challenging lighting and other conditions under which they were taken. Deciding on an overall winner was particularly difficult but in the end we felt Stuart McIntyre's shot was particularly successful in conveying the cutting-edge nature of the work undertaken by STFC."

Terry O’Connor, Director of Communications at STFC said: “These inaugural STFC Photowalks have been a tremendous success and we will be holding more in the future. We’re sure that the wonderful photographs produced will fire imaginations and raise the profile of the fascinating work that’s carried out at our sites, day in and day out, in the relentless quest for scientific progress”.