Lennart Nilsson Award

Coloured scanning electron micrograph of the soft hairs of the scalp of a wasp (Vespula vulgaris). When wasps collect nectar from flowers, pollen can stick to their hairs. Photo: Maximilian Ackermann

Award Recipients Through the Years

Has made a decisive contribution to the development of scientific photography or to someone who has carried out meritorious work in the spirit of Lennart Nilsson.

2025 – Maximilian Ackermann 2025 – Maximilian Ackermann

“for his outstanding contributions to scientific imaging, embodying the spirit of Lennart Nilsson by making the invisible visible. His pioneering work, particularly in developing and applying advanced techniques like hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT) and artistic scanning electron microscopy, contributes to advancing our understanding of complex biological structures and disease.”

2024 – Csaba Adori 2024 – Csaba Adori

“for his scientific 3D photography of tissues. In the spirit of Lennart Nilsson, he reveals not only the scientific aspects of the tissue structure or its pathology, but also the beauty of anatomical details. His artistic images provide an overview of several millimeters with micrometer resolution, contributing to the scientific understanding of structures such as the inner ear and the human brainstem. His material is used in teaching, and he reaches outside the academic world by sharing videos of the human 3D microcosmos, provoking curiosity and fascination.”

2023 – Fredrik Pleijel 2023 – Fredrik Pleijel

“he makes the invisible life of marine invertebrates not only visible but also aesthetic and fascinating. His images are an important contribution to the taxonomy of organisms in marine sediments. Through his images he reaches well outside the academic world in portraying the beauty of marine life and stimulating our fascination for biodiversity.”

2022 – Martin Oeggerli 2022 – Martin Oeggerli

“in recognition of his ability to illuminate science and reveal the beauty of the microcosmo using the scanning electron microscope.”

2021 – Stephen Gschmeissner 2021 – Stephen Gschmeissner

“for his creative and ingenious efforts that enabled new scientific breakthroughs and opened new windows for observations of life. As a scientific director and photographer specialized in microscopy, his commitment and deep knowledge also made a profound impact on the training of the next generation of scientific and educational leaders. This has led to many new scientific discoveries in several areas such as tumor biology and neuroscience.”

2020 – Jan Huisken 2020 – Jan Huisken

“for his developments and creative use of selective plane illumination microscopy, also known as light-sheet microscopy. His ingenious efforts have enabled many new scientific breakthroughs and have permitted us to make observations of life that were previously not possible to imagine. His images and movies of living organisms are breathtaking, both in their scientific content and their artistic qualities.”

2019 – Ed Boyden 2019 – Ed Boyden

“for his development of expansion microscopy; a microscopy technique that makes the invisible visible and brings out the hidden details in microscopy preparations, beautifully demonstrated by studies of three-dimensional structures in the brain.”

2018 – Thomas Deerinck 2018 – Thomas Deerinck

“for developing novel microscopy techniques and methods to improve the ability to obtain information from biological specimens.”

2017 – Xiaowei Zhuang 2017 – Xiaowei Zhuang

“Super-resolution light microscopy techniques have revolutionized the life sciences. With the STORM technique that was developed in Dr Xiaowei Zhuang’s laboratory, she has made breakthrough discoveries in the beautiful world of cell biology, literally making the invisible visible. Her images represent a unique combination of technical mastery, frontline science, and visual esthetics, fitting perfectly in the tradition of Lennart Nilsson.”

2016 – Alexey Amunts 2016 – Alexey Amunts

“for his pioneering work in the ongoing “Resolution Revolution”, using cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) to visualize structures of individual proteins.”

2015 – Katrin Willig 2015 – Katrin Willig

“for her groundbreaking contribution to the super-resolution microscopy of living cells. In her research she uses technology for studying cell structures at nanoscale to understand how our brains work.”

2014 – Timothy Behrens 2014 – Timothy Behrens

“for having developed so called probabilistic tractography methods. They made it possible to trace brain connections all the way from their source to target, and to quantify connectivity between different brain regions. The technique allows non-invasive in vivo mapping of the fiber structure of the human brain, which is of great importance for the understanding of the architecture of the brain in health and disease.”

2012 – Hans Blom 2012 – Hans Blom

“To promote the eternal quest in science photography to see what no one else has seen before.” (Scholarship)

2011 – Nancy Kedersha 2011 – Nancy Kedersha

“Nancy Kedersha’s color images open our eyes to the smallest components of life. Through her work she has pushed cell biology into new scientific, pedagogical and aesthetic realms. With the aid of a confocal microscope, she has turned biological data into an artistic experience.”

2010 – Kenneth Libbrecht 2010 – Kenneth Libbrecht

“Kenneth Libbrecht’s images open people’s eyes to the regularity and beauty of nature with his photographs of snowflakes, which turn mathematics, physics and chemistry into images of great beauty.”

2009 – Carolyn Porco (Tafreshi/Porco) 2009 – Carolyn Porco (Tafreshi/Porco)

“Carolyn Porco combines the finest techniques of planetary exploration and scientific research with aesthetic finesse and educational talent. While her images, which depict the heavenly bodies of the Saturn system with unique precision, serve as tools for the world’s leading experts, they also reveal the beauty of the universe in a manner that is an inspiration to one and all.”

2009 – Babak A. Tafreshi (Porko/Tafreshi) 2009 – Babak A. Tafreshi (Porko/Tafreshi)

“Babak A. Tafreshi is to receive the prize for reclaiming a night sky that most modern people have lost, taking us to remote places where the stars still look like they did at the dawn of mankind. His work calls to mind the beauty of the universe and human life on our planet.”

2008 – Anders Persson 2008 – Anders Persson

“Anders Persson’s imaging methods combine the use of cutting-edge technology with clear communication value, accomplished with an artistic sensibility. He reveals the hidden mysteries of the body with unique precision, producing images that can be comprehended and interpreted by the lay audience as well as the expert alike.”

2007 – Felice Frankel 2007 – Felice Frankel

“Those viewing Ms. Frankel’s images are initially captivated by their form and color. No sooner is their curiosity aroused than they want to know what the photograph depicts. She has thus fulfilled a scientific reporter’s paramount task: to awaken people’s interest and desire to learn.”

2006 – Satoshi Kuribayashi 2006 – Satoshi Kuribayashi

“Using humour, empathy, beauty and unsurpassed precision he depicts both the insects themselves and their environments in fascinating video and still imagery. His images provide a new perspective on one of the Earth’s many ecosystems where human beings and insects prove to have unexpectedly much in common.”

2005 – Frans Lanting 2005 – Frans Lanting

“Frans Lanting is given the prize for having zealously and over many years illustrated in pictures the wonders of nature. He takes his camera where few others venture, revealing what was previously invisible. He has a visible urge to craft his pictures in a unique way, and the results are intimate, grand, elegant and simultaneously both journalistic and scientific.”

2004 – Göran Scharmer 2004 – Göran Scharmer

“For his pioneering work to reveal the sun in a radically new way. He has succeeded in making visible what was previously hidden from us. His unique close-up images of the sun combine research of outstanding quality with aesthetic beauty.”

2003 – David Barlow 2003 – David Barlow

“With ingenuity and technical innovation, he blends science and animation to clarify life’s various functions.”

2002 – Oliver Meckes & Nicole Ottawa 2002 – Oliver Meckes & Nicole Ottawa

“For using and extending the technology developed by Lennart Nilsson himself.”

2001 – David Doubilet 2001 – David Doubilet

“For taking his camera to previously unexplored submarine places and revealing hitherto invisible phenomena.”

2000 – David Malin 2000 – David Malin

“For developing the Malinization enhancement procedure – a significant advance in photographic astronomy.”

1999 – James Hendersson 1999 – James Hendersson

“For his work to reveal significantly faded Indian pictographs by developing the cross-polarized enhancement procedure.”

1998 – Nils Åslund 1998 – Nils Åslund

“For his innovative use of the confocal laser-scanning microscope to obtain three-dimensional images in cell biology.”

More About the Award

Excerpt from the 1998 proclamation:
“Lennart Nilsson has long been a world-renowned name, awarded for his unique achievements, where the image meets research and itself becomes science. Lennart has recently passed the age of 75, yet remains as curiously active as ever. His contributions serve as a model and inspiration for those working with imagery in the medical, biological, and technological sciences. For this reason, a foundation is being established: the Lennart Nilsson Award.”

A group of influential Swedes supported this idea and helped establish an endowment fund for the award. The group consisted of Ingvar Carlsson, former Prime Minister; Hans Wigzell, Rector of the Karolinska Institutet; Sven Nykvist, Swedish cinematographer; Bo G. Erikson, Swedish TV producer; Sam Nilsson, Director General of Sveriges Television; Staffan Larsson, Federation of Technical and Medical Photographers; Agneta Lundström, Director of the Maritime Museum; Per Sköld, former Marshal of the Royal Court of Sweden; Marcus Storch, former CEO and Group President of AGA; and Jan-Erik Wikström, former Swedish Minister.

The Lennart Nilsson Award was formally established in 1998, and on October 29, 1998, Nils Åslund, Professor of Physics at the Royal Institute of Technology, became the first recipient of the award at a ceremony in Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, held in connection with the installation of new professors at the Karolinska Institutet.

Today, the ceremony takes place at Aula Medica, still in connection with the installation of new professors at the Karolinska Institutet.

You can read more about the award on the Karolinska Institutet’s website.