CEMS PhD Candidate Zachary McAllister Wins “Most Stunning” Award in National Image Contest

Zachary McAllister, a fourth-year PhD candidate in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota, has won the “Most Stunning” award in the 2024 National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) Image Contest!
The NNCI hosts an annual imaging contest called Plenty of Beauty at the Bottom, a nod to Richard Feynman’s famous lecture, "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom." The contest features three categories: Most Stunning, Most Unique Capability, and Most Whimsical, with winners determined by public vote.
Zachary conducts his research in the Zasadzinski Lab, where he focuses on model lung surfactant mixtures. Lung surfactant is a thin coating inside the lung that stabilizes the alveoli and allows for breathing. Premature infants are often born without sufficient lung surfactant, which makes breathing difficult. To treat this, doctors administer animal-derived replacement surfactant, which works effectively. However, in adults, lung surfactant-related issues are more complex, and there are currently no equivalent treatments. By studying model lung surfactants, Zachary hopes to contribute to the development of new treatments for adults. His research is currently supported by the NIH's F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellowship, and he aspires to continue working in academia, focusing on translational and surfactant science.
Zachary’s winning image, "Swirling Surfactant Sea," is a single molecule-thick image of a model lung surfactant formulation captured using a confocal fluorescence microscope. This type of microscopy allows researchers to capture detailed images by focusing light on a single plane of a specimen. The image depicts two phases of the lung surfactant formulation, similar to how icebergs (solid) float in the ocean (liquid). The swirling shapes are the more solid-like phase, whose form is influenced by cholesterol lowering the line tension, or energy per perimeter, around the domains.
Congratulations to Zachary on this impressive achievement!
See Zachary’s winning image, "Swirling Surfactant Sea," and learn more about the contest at the NNCI’s website.