Ion Beams Take 5th Annual Mahato Memorial Image Contest

The 5th Annual Mahato Memorial Event took place on Thursday, November 19, and left the Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine, and Applied Science (FCIEMAS) with beautiful works of art for its next public display. The event also featured the awarding of the annual Mahato fellowship to Zhihui Cheng, a doctoral candidate in electrical and computer engineering.

The contest, called “Envisioning the Invisible,” is designed to help explore and explain the world around us. Each year, Duke faculty, staff and students are invited to submit their best images for consideration. Besides awarding four cash prizes, the Mahato committee chooses a number of photos to be displayed in an art installation in FCIEMAS.

The competitive fellowship is a merit-based award consisting of a one-year, $5,000 salary supplement, and is open to all Pratt PhD students regardless of year of matriculation or citizenship. The criteria are intentionally broad to emphasize and celebrate Pratt’s diverse student community. 

The Mahato Memorial event honors Abhijit Mahato, a former engineering graduate student who was tragically murdered on Friday, January 18, 2008. He valued activities that bridged the gaps between the science/engineering and social sciences/humanities disciplines, including sports, chess and photography. By holding this multi-disciplinary image contest, Pratt hopes to celebrate Abhijit's life by bringing together the graduate and professional community at Duke in a wonderful display of their talents and some friendly competition.