The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) is pleased to announce the winners of the IUPAP–IYQ2025 Photo Contest, organized to celebrate the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ2025).

The contest invited participants from around the world to portray the beauty of quantum phenomena and the ways in which quantum science and technology influence our daily lives, research, and education.

Entries were submitted in two categories:

  • Beyond Our Eyes – featuring images captured through scientific instruments or produced via numerical simulations.

  • At a Glance – highlighting quantum-related effects and instruments through direct observation.

After careful review, the jury selected the winning photographs for their scientific relevance, artistic quality, and capacity to communicate the fascination of quantum science to a broader audience. These outstanding images not only celebrate the centennial of quantum mechanics but also illustrate how quantum science continues to inspire curiosity, creativity, and innovation worldwide.

At a Glance

1st place photo  

Vishwesh Tiwari, Star Trails

A juxtaposition of our perceived “fixed” reality, represented by the stationary bicycle, with the streaks of star light in this long exposure, representing our movement in space and time, in the context of a wider, evolving universe,’ all connected fundamentally by the quantum nature of matter.

2nd place photo  

Yaseera Ismail, Experimental site of the optical ground station of the first quantum satellite link in the Southern Hemisphere at Stellenbosch University

This photograph captures the experimental site  for the first quantum satellite link in the Southern Hemisphere, located at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. It represents an historic achievement in the field of quantum communication, establishing the longest quantum-secure satellite link in the world to date between China and South Africa.

3rd place photo  

Morty Fangilio, Trapped Ions

This digital scan of an original photogram speculatively captures the elegance of atoms entangled in a single moment of quantum spacetime inside a trapped-ion quantum computer.

Beyond our Eyes

1st place photo  

Alexandra Roy, Quantum Bridge: Where Electrons Dance

This image, captured with a scanning electron microscope, shows a Josephson junction, a delicate structure central to the future of quantum computing, nestled within a superconducting qubit.

2nd place photo  

Magherlly Denisse Daviran Carrasco, Beyond Crystals: The Icosahedral Symmetry of an Al64Cu23Fe13 Quasicrystal

This image was obtained using a scanning electron microscope, capturing the morphological features of a quasi-crystalline Al64Cu23Fe13 alloy, revealing the intricate characteristics of an aperiodically ordered structure that challenges the limits of classical crystallography. The equipment used belongs to Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), and it is operated through Centro de Investigaciones Tecnológicas, Biomédicas y Medioambientales (CITBM).

3rd place photo  

Pasquale Ercolano,  A microscopic detector toward quantum innovation

This image shows a superconducting microstrip photon-number-resolving detector, a symbol of progress for photon-based quantum technologies.