Images of Research winners

Biology doctoral student Andrea Wishart was the grand prize winner in the University of Saskatchewan’s 2018 Images of Research competition. Wishart and three other College of Arts & Science researchers won top prizes in the fourth annual photo and imaging contest.

The competition is an avenue for U of S students, staff, faculty and alumni to showcase the groundbreaking research, scholarly and artistic work taking place at the U of S. All of the winning entries, which receive cash prizes, will be on public display in the North Concourse of Place Riel from April 16 to April 20 and are viewable online at Images of Research.

College of Arts & Science Images of Research winners

A Squirrel in the Hand is Worth the Whole World, Grand Prize

Andrea Wishart, doctoral student in biology

One person keeps their eyes on the nest while the other starts to climb the tree. It is a race that pits human against mother squirrel in a vertical obstacle course race to reach the precious nest contents. We last saw this same baby North American red squirrel “pup” 25 days ago, after tracking mom's pregnancy and finding her pups within a day of being born. Back then, we weighed, sexed, and marked them, all in anticipation of today: ear tag day! Both of these dates are critical to our long-term squirrel monitoring project (the first because the day a mother squirrel gives birth is under natural selection and can give her babies an edge in certain years; the second, because giving each individual unique tags allows us to track their key life moments from birth to death). This squirrel, newly tagged, is being hand delivered back home, to snuggle into the natal nest with mom.

Funders: Northern Scientific Training Program, NSERC

Gender Equity in Basic Education: A reality or an illusion, Best Description, first place

Zita A. Seshie, PhD candidate in sociology

My mother could not complete her basic education in the 1960s in Ghana due to scarce family resources and the cultural expectation that a woman's contribution is in the domestic sphere. As the highly educated daughter of an African woman that could not complete the grade 6 level, I was inspired to focus my doctoral research on Gender Equity and Education Policy in Ghana. In spite of Ghana's Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education policy, girls continue to have lower completion rates compared to boys. I took this picture during my fieldwork because it is a reminder that we must continue to explore why girls have lower educational attainment globally.

Funder: International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada

Little Bird in a Big World, Research in action, first place

Katelyn Luff, master’s student in biology

A recently hatched Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla) chick is banded and measured at the Karrak Lake Research Station in central Nunavut. The effects of environmental contaminants like mercury on local biota - including these sandpipers - are unclear. These birds are part of an ongoing study in the central Canadian Arctic which aims to investigate the levels of contaminants on breeding shorebird species. Data collection will provide insight to contaminants present in the local system, whether these levels change over the breeding season, and whether chick fitness is influenced by contaminant loads.

Funders: Northern Scientific Training Program, Government of Canada Research Affiliate Program

Taking a Break, Community and Impact, runner up

James Waldram, professor in archaeology and anthropology

A mother and two of her daughters rest in a hammock during an otherwise typically busy day in southern Belize. Anthropological research with Q'eqchi' Maya has demonstrated that women's roles have changed little over the past several generations. While the boys are off at school, and the men are in the fields, the girls remain at home learning the hard lessons of laborious domestic life in remote villages, where running water and electricity remain rare. Our research continues to document many health issues related to women's hard labour and provide insights to the traditional and biomedical systems. Posing for this photograph was a momentary and welcome respite. There is corn to pound and water to haul!

Funder: SSHRC

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