KI Image Awards

KI East Gallery at dusk

Photos of the Galleries courtesy of Ellenzweig, Architect

Scientific data comes in many varieties and formats, but a special place is reserved for images. Microscopy and other biomedical imaging techniques provide new windows through which experts and non-scientists alike can glimpse otherwise invisible biological worlds.

The Koch Institute Image Awards were established to recognize and publicly celebrate these extraordinary visuals. They exemplify the exchange of ideas between science, engineering, and art, illuminating the biological insights and technological innovation coming out of MIT's laboratories. Simply put, these visuals are beautiful and thought-provoking.

Every year life scientists and engineers from the MIT community submit their entries for our annual competition. A panel of judges, with wide-ranging expertise in science, art, and media, chooses ten winning images to appear in the annual Image Awards exhibition organized by MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

Winning images are exhibited in 8-foot tall backlit square and circular displays in the Koch Institute Public Galleries. Visible from Main Street, the exhibition represents the Koch Institute's commitment to make biomedical research accessible to all.

Our images have appeared as part of the Wellcome Image Awards exhibition (now the Wellcome Photography Prize), Cell Picture Show hosted by Cell Press, Nature, the Hall of Human Life at the Museum of Science, Boston, Image of the Day hosted by The Scientist magazine, and the Aspen Ideas Festival's Spotlight Health, as well as in STAT News, ​​​​​​ Popular Science, and National Geographic. To learn more about collaborative and public display opportunities, contact kigalleries@mit.edu.