There’s a Place for You in the Archives
The Faces of the Physical Sciences
In July of 2025, the Niels Bohr Library & Archives launched a new initiative and easy submission tool to capture digital photos of science and scientists. A year later we’ve added dozens of new photos to our collection, and this month we’re going to take a look at some of my favorites. Though our photo collection is filled with famous names and firsts, this collection is about the everyday look and feel of scientific work. Science depends on humans, with all their passion, ambition, and yes...silliness. These photos help document what 21st century science and scientists look like.
You can view all the photos submitted in the Faces of the Physical Sciences Collection on our digital repository.
A van used by IceCube to transport people and supplies at the South Pole. The wheels have been replaced by Matrax tracks
AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, gift of Spencer Klein.
A staff member (naming no names) was very disappointed this photo wasn’t of rapper and actor Ice Cube’s van being equipped to handle an Antarctic summer. In this case, IceCube is in fact a South Pole neutrino observatory located near the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. One particularly delightful detail about this IceCube is that it is partially made of Antarctic ice. It has thousands of sensors buried beneath the ice up to 2,500 meters deep. Per the University of Wisconsin-Madison project website, the IceCube sensors collect the Cherenkov light that is emitted by neutrinos as they travel through the ice.
Neutrinos are astonishingly tiny particles that are the most abundant massive particles in the universe. They are created from many different sources and almost never interact with other matter. Though neutrinos were predicted in 1930, they were not proved to exist until 1956, and scientists are still trying to learn about their mysteries. In addition to observing neutrinos, IceCube is also used to detect cosmic rays.
The construction and research of IceCube is funded by a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and many other institutions around the world. Construction took seven years to complete because work could only be done during the Antarctic summer season (roughly October to February). Dr. Spencer Klein, who donated the photo, described the process of drilling holes in the ice during an interview with AIP staff:
We’ll set up this drilling plant, basically car wash technology. And then we pump this pressurized water down into the nozzle. Once we get going, we can drill a hole in 36 hours*
During that interview, Klein also mentioned that drilling holes in Antarctic ice is useful for climate science:
In Antarctica, every year it snows a little bit, but it never melts. And the layers build up and build up... so when we drill down, we’re going back about 100,000 years in time... So if 100,000 years ago, it snowed a year and there was a bunch of dust, maybe because of a nearby volcano, or maybe just fires and the atmosphere was dusty, then there’s a dusty layer and then later it may get clearer. So this gives us a picture of you what was in the atmosphere at the South Pole over the last 100,000 years.*
Spencer Klein also donated a photo of himself digging a slot hole for a radio antenna for the ARIANNA (Antarctic Ross Ice-Shelf Antenna Neutrino Array) prototype station in Moore’s Bay on the Ross Ice Shelf (about 100 miles south of McMurdo station) in Antarctica. ARIANNA was a pioneering experiment to look for radio pulses created when ultra-high energy neutrinos interacted in the Ross Ice Shelf. Of this photo he said:
Well, I like this picture because it shows if you want to do science, you have to do a wide variety of things. I’m shoveling snow, basically, you know, digging a hole in the ice... And shows how you have to do a lot of different things. It’s not just sitting in front of a terminal, typing out computer programs.*
Not that sitting in front of a computer terminal isn’t science! But we like that there are photos in our collection of scientists in all their habitats. Thank you, Dr. Klein!
Group portrait of the nuclear physics medicine team testing a Siemens SPECT camera at the University of Florida Shands Healthcare System. (L-R) Dr. Izabella Barreto, Dr. Stephanie Leon, Dr. Anahita Heshmat, Homa Mojabi, and Dr. Mercy Akerele.
Photo by Izabella Barreto, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
Nuclear medicine has many formats and uses, whether it’s diagnosing cancer or treating diseases like hyperthyroidism. Regardless of its purpose, it usually involves the application of tiny amounts of radioactive substances to the body, followed by imaging, which allows doctors to see the functions of body parts that could not normally be seen. Nuclear medicine is a multidisciplinary field, involving physics and medicine as well as chemistry and engineering.
The caption provided by the donor, Izabella Barreto , sums up this photo perfectly:
All of our division’s nuclear medicine-certified medical physics faculty (Dr. Izabella Barreto and Dr. Stephanie Leon) along with the second- and third-year medical physics residents training in nuclear medicine (Dr. Anahita Heshmat and Dr. Mercy Akerele) and graduate student conducting nuclear medicine research (Homa Mojabi), came together during the annual quality control physics testing of a Siemens SPECT camera. During the testing and training activities, we realized that the entire nuclear medicine physics team present was composed of women-four of whom are immigrants-an uncommon occurrence in the field. The moment was captured to document this meaningful representation within medical physics.
The central calorimeter of the D-Zero Experiment at Fermilab under construction. Names provided by the donor include Sarah Johnson, Joan Guida, Gerry Blazey, Terry Heuring, Seung Ahn, and Pat Mooney.
Fermilab, courtesy of AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
DZero is the name of one of the two main experiments that were a result of international collaboration at the Tevatron particle accelerator in Illinois at Fermilab. Tevatron (not a shoe or a calculator, which was where my brain first went) was the largest particle accelerator in the world from when its construction was finished in 1983 until 2010 when the Large Hadron Collider was made operational in Switzerland. In 1995, the Tevatron helped discover the “top quark,” i.e. the last elementary particle predicted by theoretical particle physics. DZero studied collisions between protons and antiprotons to test the Standard Model and search for new particles.
This photo shows a group of physics grad students, postdocs, and Fermilab technical staff standing in front of the detector in white clean suits. Raise your hand if you would have trouble keeping your clean suit so sparkling white. In an interview with AIP staff, Dr. Sarah D. Johnson, the donor of the photo, summed up her work beautifully when she said:
That image really says to me how physics research is a group endeavor, that it’s a team effort, that you need a lot of people working together with support from the government. If we want to learn about the universe, if we want to understand the building blocks of matter, that we have to collaborate with each other to do it.*
Portrait of Marcel F. Corchado Albelo, a solar physics graduate student working at the National Solar Observatory, at Mar Chiquita in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico.
Photo by Welmo Romero, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
One of my favorite portraits in this collection is of Marcel Corchado Albelo, a grad student at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) while in Puerto Rico. With a focus on solar physics, NSO’s mission is to “advance knowledge of the Sun, both as an astronomical object and as the dominant external influence on Earth.” It is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSO has many ground-based telescopes and observatories around the country, but it’s headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.
The caption provided by the donor, Marcel Corchado Albelo, explains his beautiful t-shirt:
The hand-painted t-shirt highlights the different layers of the solar atmosphere and the important role magnetism plays in its evolution. This picture was taken as a part of the collection ‘Homenaje a nuestros hombres negros’, a collection created to showcase black Puerto Rican men as a diverse group of people.
Dr. Darine Haddad, from the Fundamental Electrical Measurements Group at NIST, explains how changes in gravity within the room effect measurements of the balance.
Photo by Trevor Owens, courtesy of AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.
In June of 2024, a group of librarians and archivists from the AIP Niels Bohr Library & Archives visited the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. During that tour they visited many buildings and sections of the vast NIST campus, including the section that conducts research so precise that it needs to be underground so the vibrations from the nearby highway don’t disrupt the instruments. I imagine working in a perfectly clean and quiet room is a welcome respite for scientists who might have small kids or pets at home. I know I’m jealous.
The subject of this photo, Dr. Haddad, was showing off a piece of equipment, called the Kibble Balance, that she uses in her work at the Fundamental Electrical Measurements or FEM group. In an interview with AIP staff she said:
So the research I did is to solve how to measure mass very, very accurately for all times and for all people. Until 2018, mass was defined using a hunk of metal. And that mass was kept at BIPM, which is the International Bureau of Weights and Measure in France. Since it’s an artifact, one can drop it and that will change all the masses in the world. So, what NIST scientists built an instrument [pictured] to measure one of the fundamental constants in quantum mechanics, which is the Planck constant, because there’s a link between the mass, and the Planck constant. And then we use this instrument to realize the unit of mass based on fundamental constant of physics. Because everyone has access to those fundamental constants, they’ll have access to them anywhere, inn any time, not only on Earth, but also in the universe.*
Dr. Haddad also described the implementation of a new definition of mass in 2018:
This instrument [Kibble balance] actually measured a Planck constant. And that actually paved the way to redefine the unit of mass. And that actually led to the definition of the whole system of unit in 2018. So, in 2018, there were like 60 countries that met in Versailles, France, and they all unanimously voted to redefine the system of unit based on the fundamental constant. I was there when I start hearing the vote one after one, yes, yes, yes. And that was a beautiful moment. Because when can you see like the whole word is agreeing on something, right?*
Such a cool moment! The new standard began implementation in 2019, so check your textbooks, people! The 2018 vs the 2019 editions might be very different.
Dr. Joyful Mdhluli (standing, left) leads a panel discussion at the 32nd IAU General Assembly, held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. Other panelists included Dr. Khotso Mokhele (center) and Dr. Vanessa McBride (right).
Photo by Bradley Urion, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.
Many of the photos we received feature conferences, meetings, or other gatherings of scientists, which add a contemporary update to a common theme in our collections. For instance, we have photos of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) going all the way back to 1928, including a lovely collection of portraits by astronomer John Irwin. In this action shot, Dr. Joyful Mdhluli is leading a panel at the 2024 meeting in South Africa. Looking through the conference program from the 2024 meeting, it appears Dr. Mdhluli gave several presentations, including a poster session called “The Cosmos as a Classroom: Reducing Anxiety through Astronomical Wonder.” Dr. Mdhluli works for the Office of Astronomy for Development’s (OAD) Astronomy for Mental Health Flagship and explores the connection between astronomy and mental health. OAD’s mission is to use astronomy as a tool for international development, in order to create a better world. After the COVID-19 pandemic, OAD created a flagship project focusing on mental health. Its mission is to improve mental health through internationally accessible astronomy. One of their projects was creating workshops for physics students with “planetary self-care activities” including such alliterative activities as “Jupiter Joyful Journaling.”
Portrait of Henry Garcia, Simulation Supervisor at Pixar Animation Studios. Pre-production artwork of Merida from the movie Brave is seen on the right. Garcia helped build and execute the simulator used to bring real-world physicality to her hair.
Photo by Emron Grover, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.
Have you ever marveled at the way animation can depict the waves in the ocean or a strand of hair? Then you’ve appreciated the work of both artists and scientists. Henry Garcia is one such scientist: he works at Pixar Animation Studios as their Simulation Supervisor. Garcia was interviewed by Physics Today in 2025 and he described his role at Pixar:
I lead teams of 10 to 30 people to create and use technology to bring our characters and environments to life. My department specializes in clothing, hair, and vegetation. I tend to focus on motion, such as walking through grass, or if characters interact with ropes, or things like that. I have spent 25–30% of my career in the effects department, which also uses simulations, but it tends to do things more like water, and smoke and fire, and large destruction.
He also described the challenges of animating Merida’s hair in the 2012 movie, Brave.
One of the issues was how her hair uncoiled as she moved. A lock of curly hair is like a spring. But when she would bounce or turn her head quickly, her hair would uncoil too much and stretch out really far. The director wanted a softness to her hair and to see S shapes in motion as she moved. How do we solve the problem of keeping the hair soft enough to create S shapes but not so soft that the locks could uncoil?
Sometimes the solution is very physics based, like changing damping in a spring model, and sometimes the fix is more of a hacky Band-Aid. For Merida’s hair, we created nonlinear stiffness: If her hair was close to its default length, then the stiffness would be low enough to create the S shapes, and if the hair started to uncoil and lengthen, then the springs would strengthen automatically to reduce the uncoiling. It’s not realistic, but it created the look the director wanted.
I don’t know about you, but I’ll never look at a Pixar movie in quite the same way again. And I’m not sure I really expected reality from a movie about people turning into bears, but it’s nice to have the caveat that the hair isn’t perfectly obeying the laws of physics.
Photo by Eric Frederick, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
I’ll leave it to Eric Frederick, the donor, to describe this perfect 21st century selfie:
This photo was captured in 2008 while I was working at BWH [Brigham and Women’s Hospital]/Harvard Medical School as a research assistant. In the background there is a 129Xe polarizer. This polarizer was shared between Harvard (Samuel Patz, PhD) and the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH (Bill Hersman, PhD and Iulian C. Ruset, PhD). Using this device, we were able to create magnetic (hyperpolarized) xenon gas to visualize the lung airways, estimate gas diffusion, and potentially measure local in vivo gas exchange as xenon dissolves readily into lung tissues. The pink glow in the glass tube is due to light scatter from the laser which was used to optically pump (magnetize) a mixture of aerosolized rubidium gas with xenon gas and other buffer gases.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. This photo is screaming out for a caption contest. Stay tuned!
Thank you to everyone who has submitted a photo for this collection. As Trevor Owens wrote in 2025 when we launched our submission tool, " Pictures of scientists play an important role in shaping ideas about what kinds of people practice science and what kinds of activities scientists engage in, so it is critical we have access to rich and diverse visual documentation of both who practices science and the full lives science professionals lead.” The photos represented here demonstrate how these 21st century photos will shape the narrative of 21st century science. If you too want your silly lab selfie, conference presentation, normal workday, or beautiful headshot to be a part of the Faces of the Physical Sciences, please submit your photos to be a part of our collection .
*quotes edited for clarity
