The SoMAS photo competition is an annual event where students (graduate and undergraduate), faculty and staff share their pictures with the SoMAS community and the general public.

This year we have changed our categories to better represent our SoMAS diversity and increase the representation of our three divisions. The Photo Competition will be divided into four categories with a single winner in each category:

Marine: Any photos taken while performing research associated with the SoMAS Division of Marine Science or related to Marine science

Atmospheric: Any photos taken while performing research associated with the SoMAS Division of Atmospheric Science or related to Atmospheric Science.

Sustainability: Any photos taken while performing research associated with the SoMAS Division of Sustainability or related to Sustainability Science.

SoMAS spirit: Freestyle photos. Anything that embodies the spirit of SoMAS will be eligible under this category. It can include photos of SoMAS events, SoMAS personnel, campus/equipment, marine fauna/flora, seascapes, sunsets on the ocean…your choice!

The results of the 2020 SoMAS Photo Competition are in! Event organizer and SoMAS PhD Student Sara Cernadas-Martin announced the finalists and the winners for this year’s contest!

Photo of a white shark eating a dead humpback whale that we encountered during our last summer field season

Marine winner: Oliver Shipley

Marine finalists: Hannah Blair, Noah Strycker (2 photos) and Sarah Praisner

All Marine photos are available on Google Photos.

Winning photos in the Marine category
A supercell producing a waterspout moves on-shore from Bellport Bay to Mastic Beach as seen from Smith Point County Park on 2 September 2019. The storm would go on to produce an EF-0 tornado in Manorville

Atmospheric winner: Kristofer Tuftedal

Atmospheric finalists: Brian Colle, Lisa Crawford, Stefanie Massucci and Xiaoning Wu

All Atmospheric photos are available on Google Photos.

Winning photos in the Atmospheric category
This photo was taken on the Sustainability Trip to Cuba with Stony Brook in January 2020. We were on a family farm in Cuba when I began to notice how the family reused household items around the farm for different purposes. I think this photo fully encapsulates what sustainability is. The items that would have ended up in a landfill in the US are used as planters for succulents in Cuba. The US needs to begin to think in ways like this in order to lower the amount of waste we produce.

Sustainability winner: Mei-Lyn Stout

Sustainability finalists: Alex Montalvo (2 photos) and John Bohorquez (2 photos)

All Sustainability photos are available on Google Photos.

Winning photos in the Sustainability category
This photo was taken during a dive on the Marine Tropical Ecology (MAR 388) course, winter 2019. Photo was taken in January 2019 at 50 feet depth outside of Discovery Bay, Jamaica. I was SCUBA certified on this trip and had my first experiences underwater as a future marine scientist, which are truly memorable. The Arrow Crab (Stenorhynchus seticornis) was one of the creatures I was able to interact with as one of our projects was to photo-ID the various reef organisms while we learned about their interactions with each other.

Spirit winner: Siobhan Keeling

Spirit finalists: Elena Sudano, Justin Holman, Lisa Crawford and Stefanie Massucci

All Spirit photos are available on Google Photos.

Winning photos in the Spirit category

Congratulations to our finalists and winners and big thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s edition of the SoMAS PhotoCompetition as well as to our judges Paul Shepson, Gordon Taylor, Ping Liu, Katherine Aubrecht and Carl Safina!

The winning photos of each category will be printed in canvas and permanently exhibited at SoMAS! The category winners will receive a $100.00 cash prize!

Time to start taking photos and getting ready for next year’s contest!