The 2004 Olympus BioScapes International Digital Imaging Competition was adjudicated by four distinguished scientists representing a significant level of expertise in a wide spectrum of biological disciplines. In addition, the panel has demonstrated extensive experience with a variety of microscopy techniques, including brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast, differential interference contrast, fluorescence, Hoffman modulation contrast, confocal, multiphoton, as well as many of the advanced quantitative fluorescence methods.

Dr. Victoria Centonze Frohlich - The Associate Director of the Optical Imaging Facility for the Department of Cellular and Structural Biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonia, Dr. Frohlich is a practicing cell biologist with a significant interest in the areas of cell motility and early development. Throughout her career, Dr. Frohlich has applied a variety of optical microscopy techniques to her research, including many of transmitted methods mentioned above. Among the advanced fluorescence techniques utilized by Dr. Frohlich are fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), photolysis, and optical trapping. Dr. Frohlich also has experience with transmission and scanning electron microscopy.

Dr. James A. Fadool - A faculty member in the Biological Sciences Department at The Florida State University, Dr. Fadool specializes in novel transgenic technologies for identification of transcriptionally active regions of the genome using the zebrafish as a model organism. His other interests include vertebrate embryology, genetic and biochemical mechanisms regulating development and degenerative diseases of the visual system. Much of Dr. Fadool's work involves transfection and selection of stable clones containing gene products linked to cyan and yellow fluorescent protein derivatives for imaging applications in fluorescence microscopy. Among the optical microscopy techniques employed by Dr. Fadool in his research are widefield and confocal fluorescence, brightfield, and phase contrast.

Dr. Kenneth N. Fish - Conducting research in the Department of Neuropharmacology (Harold L. Dorris Neurological Research Center) at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, Dr. Fish's primary focus is to construct schizophrenia endophenotype mouse models that faithfully reproduce both pathological processes and phenomenology associated with the disease. The goal is to identify the smallest change in the neuronal architecture that leads to a functional deficit that mimics at least a single symptom of schizophrenia in order to relate specific changes in brain architecture to sensorimotor gating deficits and to locomotor abnormalities with respect to schizophrenia. Optical microscopy techniques utilized in this research include confocal and multiphoton fluorescence imaging, as well as total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRFM) along with traditional widefield fluorescence methods.

Dr. Douglas B. Murphy - Professor Murphy is the Director of the Microscope Facility in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. This resource is a core facility that provides equipment and services in fluorescence, confocal, and electron microscopy to laboratories throughout the medical school. Dr. Murphy's research interests include the dependence of microtubules in organelle transport and related microtubule behavior, including polymer annealing and the mechanism of binding microtubule-associated protein (MAP-2) on microtubule surfaces. He has also explored the mechanical and conformational requirements of the motor protein, kinesin. The core facility specializes in advanced fluorescence techniques (FRET, FRAP, TIRFM), confocal, multiphoton, and time-lapse in multiple fluorescence channels.