Nikon Small World

Jeremy A. Kaplan
Science & Technology Editor
FoxNews.com

Jeremy A. Kaplan is the science and technology editor at FoxNews.com, a frequent author and a confessed technology nut. He spent 10 years working at Ziff Davis Media, where he was executive editor of PC Magazine, launched several magazines, served as co-host of the Fastest Geek competition, and founded the GoodCleanTech blog, which was recently nominated for a 2007 Weblog award, a MIN Best of the Web award, and was a finalist in the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards Competition.

Betsy Mason
Science Editor
Wired.com

Betsy Mason is the science editor for Wired.com. Prior to coming to Wired, she was an award-winning science reporter at the Contra Costa Times in the San Francisco Bay Area. She completed the Science Communication Program at UC Santa Cruz and has written about science for Nature, Science, Discover and New Scientist. Before becoming a journalist, Mason was a geologist, and has a Master's degree in geology from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree in geology from Princeton University.

Alison North, Ph.D.
Director, Bio-Imaging Resource Center
Assistant Professor
Rockefeller University

Alison North is the Director of the Bio-Imaging Resource Center and a Research Assistant Professor at the Rockefeller University, having moved to New York to establish the center in April 2000. A native of Yorkshire, UK, she was an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge and received her doctorate from Oxford University. She undertook post-doctoral research in Salzburg and then Manchester, where she was later awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development fellowship. Her research projects primarily focused on electron microscopy until she first encountered GFP and soon became hooked on live cell imaging. She now advises and trains hundreds of Rockefeller University and external researchers in a wide variety of optical microscopy techniques. 

Alison’s images and movies have been exhibited worldwide, including in science exhibits at the International Center of Photography in New York and on the television science series "Nova.” In her spare time she plays the bassoon in various chamber music groups, sings in the vocal ensemble Cantori New York and enjoys many outdoor pursuits. Alison is delighted to be invited to join the panel of judges for the 2010 Nikon Small World Competition – what could be more enjoyable than spending a day admiring thousands of stunning photomicrographs?

Shirley A. Owens, Ph.D.
Center for Advanced Microscopy
Michigan State University (retired)

Shirley A. Owens is retired from Michigan State University (MSU), where she served as the Confocal Lab Director at the Center for Advanced Microscopy. Previously, she was an Advanced Light/Laser Scan Confocal Microscopy Instructor at the university, where she provided instruction on applications of confocal scanning microscopy, digital presentation of images using Adobe PhotoShop and Microsoft PowerPoint, maintenance of a light microscope and properties of objective and condenser lenses. Owens served in other various capacities at MSU since 1984, including as an Ornamental Plant Identification Laboratory Instructor, General Biology Laboratory Instructor, Botany Laboratory Instructor and Scanning Electron Microscopy Laboratory Instructor.

Her research has included analysis of the anatomy of mutant flowers, development and architecture of cauliflorous buds, and the anatomical effects of hardening stages and freeze tolerance in rye. Her work has been published in a number of scientific journals, including Microscopy Research & Technique, International Journal of Plant Sciences and American Journal of Botany. Her professional recognitions include the William G. Fields Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching (1992) and the Bessey Award for Excellence in Research (1995).

In 1986, Shirley earned her B.A. in Mathematics from MSU, followed by an M.S. in Botany and Plant Pathology from MSU in 1990. In 1996, Owens received her Ph.D. in Botany and Plant Pathology from MSU, with an emphasis on morphology, anatomy, microscopy (confocal laser scanning and electron), development, taxonomy, evolution, pollination and breeding system ecology.

Shirley is a big fan of the Nikon Small World Competition and considers the images submitted a tribute to science and to microscopy because of the way beauty and art blend with the details of science. She has received several recognitions from the Nikon Small World competition for her images, including 2nd Place in 2004, 7th Place in 2005, Images of Distinction in 2007 and 2008 and 7th Place and an Image of Distinction in 2009. Owens currently lives in Flushing, Mich.

Michael W. Davidson
Director of the Optical and Magneto-Optical Imaging
Center at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Florida State University

Michael Davidson is the director of the Optical and Magneto-Optical Imaging Center at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University.  Involved with various aspects of microscopy for over 25 years, Davidson's scientific interests include the packaging of DNA into virus heads, liquid crystallinity in biological systems and the adsorption of small liquid crystal molecules onto surfaces.

Davidson has authored many scientific articles on the subject of photomicrography and his photomicrographs have been published in more than a thousand national and international scientific journals, popular magazines and newspapers.  In addition, Davidson's photomicrography has won more than 40 awards in scientific and industrial photography competitions and has been exhibited at over 50 locations nationwide.  He is also the expert behind the Nikon Instruments educational Web site MicroscopyU (which can be access through the Nikon Instruments Web site at www.nikoninstruments.com) and his own www.molecularexpressions.com.