A total of 123 microscopy images were submitted on the website (Carl Zeiss Nano Image Contest) for the contest that ran from the middle of May to the end of August. After the end of the submission period, both the participants and all the visitors of the website were given the opportunity to vote for their favourite images and therefore selected the winners.

Badenhorst, who works in a field of graphite technology, entered the contest with his bizarre landscape of graphite which was captured with an ULTRA REM. With a total of 7000 points, his image received the most votes of all categories. “Our ZEISS ULTRA has allowed me to make progress in my research in the past year. ZEISS SEM technology helped me to uncover aspects of graphite oxidation which I have never seen before”, stresses Badenhorst.

“We are very happy and proud of Heinrich. He really deserves this accolade”, said Professor Walter Focke, the Director for the Institute of Applied Materials and a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pretoria.

Prof Focke said Heinreich is studying the effect of catalyst and inhibitor particles on the rate of oxidation of graphite and the winning image is just one of many other striking pictures generated on the state-of-the-art scanning electron microscope at the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis of the University of Pretoria.

“His research revealed new aspects of graphite oxidation that has attracted international attention. Hein was also invited to present his work as a keynote speaker at the recent international Carbon 2010 conference held in Clemson, USA. This represents another noteworthy achievement for such a young researcher,” added Prof Focke.