Fine Particle Arts Competition

The 9th Annual Fine Particle Arts Competition will be held at the 44th Annual AAAR Conference in Pasadena, California. This is your chance to showcase your creative side and help educate the world about aerosols! Entries from past editions of the competition can be seen here. There are two categories for the Fine Particle Arts Competition:

  • Art Competition: Submit an image of your most beautiful, interesting, or artistic-looking particle(s) or other images of aerosols or research equipment. There are two submission categories – images at the microscopic (<1mm) and macroscopic (>1mm) scale.
  • Video Competition: Create an engaging and educational video to explain aerosol science to a general audience. Submitted videos will be screened by the Online Education Committee and the top 5 entries will be featured at the Conference. 

Art prizes for each category (microscopic and macroscopic): 

First prize $400, Second prize $300, Third prize $150

Video prizes:

First prize $600, Second prize $450, Third prize $250

Submissions should be the original work of the author(s). Submission indicates permission for your picture or video to be displayed at the Conference, on the AAAR website/Conference website or related literature, including the Particulars e-Newsletter or LinkedIn. To participate, at least one of the artists is required to be a registered attendee at the conference. The deadline to enter the Competition is October 2, 2026 11:59 pm (ET).

To enter the Art or Video Competition, log into the Abstract Submission Site at https://aaarabstracts.com/2026/. After logging in, click on the Submit button that appears in the Navigation bar. For more information on the rules for each competition and selection process see below.

 

If you have any questions, please contact the respective coordinators of the competitions:

Dr. Kayane Dingilian (kayane@caltech.edu)

Dr. Albert Presto (apresto@andrew.cmu.edu) 

Online Education Committee

DETAILED FINE PARTICLE ARTS COMPETITION RULES

ART COMPETITION

Requirements:

Electronically submit a high-resolution image as a PDF file with a title, list of contributing artists and their affiliations, and two descriptions of your submission:

  • One brief, 140-character blurb describing the piece for social media, and
  • One paragraph-length (up to 100 words) artwork label that will accompany your submission when posted, which describes your submission and conveys the context, motivation, and/or process behind the work.
  • You must bring a hard copy of your art to display at the Conference. Recommended photo size is 8” x 10”. Photos must be no larger than 12” x 18”.

 

VIDEO COMPETITION

For the Video Competition, please upload your video to YouTube. On the submission site, please provide a video title, list of contributing artists and affiliations, and the YouTube link. We are also asking you to upload the full video file so following the Conference we can additionally add the videos to AAAR’s YouTube Channel! Submissions should also include the following two descriptions:

  • One brief, 140-character blurb describing the video for social media, and
  • One paragraph-length (up to 100 words) artwork label that will accompany your submission when posted, which describes your submission and conveys the context, motivation, and/or process behind the work. Please also make this 100-word description the Video Description text included with your YouTube video.

 

Additional rules for the Video Competition:

  • Entries can be from an individual or a group as long as at least one member of the team is registered to attend AAAR.
  • Videos must be produced in the last 12 months prior to AAAR 2026 Fall Meeting.
  • Submissions must be 3 minutes or less in length.
  • Submissions should not contain any copyrighted information as winning videos will be freely available to the public via AAAR's website and/or YouTube. It is the responsibility of the participant to ensure that there is no copyrighted material used in the videos. If your video has copyrighted content, it will be disqualified.
  • Generative AI is not allowed. Videos must use images and footage that are (1) taken or filmed by the creator(s), (2) obtained with permission from the original owner(s), (3) or in the public domain. If your video has generative AI, it will be disqualified.
  • Videos should be relevant to either topics covered during the sessions of AAAR (e.g. atmospheric chemistry and physics, instrumentation, bioaerosols etc.) or broader topics such as air pollution, human health and climate change. Please reach out to the Online Education Committee if you have questions about appropriateness of your chosen topic.

 

Information on the Video Competition selection process:

  • The Online Education Committee will choose up to 5 videos from the submissions as finalists for the competition during AAAR. These videos will be chosen based on the following criteria
    • Relevance: Does your video grapple with core AAAR content?
    • Accessibility: Is your video content easy to understand / thought-provoking?
    • Engagement: Is your video fun to watch?
    • We encourage entries to prioritize the above three criteria over potentially costly and/or time-consuming efforts to make the video production appear high-budget

Voting and announcement of winners

Art entries will be displayed near the posters and the top videos will be available to view during the Conference at the AAAR Membership Booth. Each Attendee will receive a ballot in their Welcome Packet. A democratic vote will determine the winners of the cash prizes. Winners will be announced during Friday’s Plenary Session.