2020 Winners

The Science Photographer of the Year 2020 selected images were chosen from over 1,000 entries submitted for free by both amateur and professional photographers.

This year’s selection document our fragile planet, the human cost of global warming and actions being taken by communities around the world such as innovative irrigation methods and solar and turbine energy sources. They reveal incredible imaging techniques, from microscopic observations, medical examinations, fossil evacuations and kaleidoscopic patterns of refractions, oscillations and crystallisations.

An online gallery of the selected images can be seen here. These, along with the winning images, formed an online exhibition created by the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester as part of the Manchester Science Festival.

We are especially grateful to Olympus UK & Ireland for providing camera prizes for the winners of our Young Science Photographer of the Year categories.

Simon Brown

The Science Photographer of the Year 2020 is Simon Brown for his image 'Orthophoto of SS Thistlegorm'.

SS Thistlegorm is a 126 metre long merchant ship that was bombed and sunk in 1941. The site of the wreck has been captured in 15,005 images, each adjusted to give a "straight down" view before being tagged with GPS data and merged with the others. The merged data file provides a single image of the 2 hectare site at a resolution of 2mm per pixel. This ship is a well known recreational dive site (divers at lower right), and is slowly becoming part of the local coral reef.

Sue Flood

The Science Photographer of the Year in the Climate category for 2020 is Sue Flood FRPS for her image "North Pole Under Water".

Sue was working on a Russian icebreaker, travelling to the North Pole. When they arrived at 90 degrees North latitude, the geographic North Pole, it was hard to find a suitable place to get out onto the ice. Sue photographed this North Pole sign in the melting ice, as a powerful symbol of the warming of the Arctic and the huge reduction of annual sea ice cover due to climate change.

Katy Appleton

The Young Science Photographer of the Year 2020 is Katy Appleton for her image 'Rainbow Shadow Selfie'.

The image shows a spectrum thrown onto a wall by shining sunlight through a prism. Katy has cast her own shadow onto the wall while taking the photo, so that the spectrum shines more clearly. It was felt that this apparently simple image contains many optical principles to discuss yet also harks back to the experiments of scientists such as Newton and Herschel.

Raymond Zhang

The Young Science Photographer of the Year in the Climate category for 2020 is Raymond Zhang for his image 'Apollo's Emissary'.

Raymond photographed this concentrated solar power generating station in China. This uses 12,000 mirrors to aim sunlight at a central tower where it heats molten sodium nitrate salt. The salt passes through a heat exchanger, producing steam to drive generator turbines. The thermal inertia is such that the station can continue working through the night, saving up to 350,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission per year.

The selection panel were impressed by the composition of the image, but also how it highlights a leading renewable energy technology.