Global Physics Photowalk 2025: Two GANIL Photos Awarded

GANIL has won the first and second public prizes in the Global Physics Photowalk 2025, an international competition that celebrates physics research through the lens of amateur and professional photographers. The competition results were announced on February 12th during the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Phoenix, USA.

Last spring, 16 laboratories across Asia, the Americas, and Europe —including GANIL — opened their doors to photographers, inviting them to capture unique artistic perspectives of the instruments and spaces dedicated to physics research.

Out of the final collection of 48 photographs, two images of GANIL by Yannig Van de Wouwer were honored. Beyond showcasing our infrastructure, these awards highlight the strong connection between art and science, demonstrating how visual beauty can coexist with scientific rigor.

Yannig Van De Wouwer is a professional photographer based in Belgium. Always fascinated by technology, he has long dreamed of visiting cutting-edge facilities like GANIL. When the opportunity arose, the 500 kilometers separating him from the site seemed like a small distance to travel!

The GANIL Photowalk took place in the SPIRAL2 LINAC. LINAC is a new-generation superconducting linear accelerator. Thanks to its high-performance ion sources, this unique facility can accelerate ion beams from protons to nickel and soon uranium, at record intensities for a wide range of research applications, including the synthesis of superheavy elements, the study of nuclei with fast neutrons and the production of very rare isotopes that provide insight into the secrets of the nuclear interaction that binds matter together.

First public prize: The tunnel

Artistic legend
At the back of the LINAC is a corridor where you can see a beautiful, orderly repetition of numerous cables and pipes. The quality of light in this area was far superior to that in many other places. By using a small aperture, the light sources take on a pleasing star shape.

Scientific legend
The service corridor that runs the length of the SPIRAL2 linear accelerator provides access to the various systems that feed its components. These include connections for cooling circuits, vacuum pumps, and connections for monitoring the status of the various systems.

Second public prize : Under vacuum

Artistic legend
A key part of the science behind accelerators is searching for patterns in the massive amounts of data. For this photo, I played with that concept: looking for an interesting pattern in the complex setup filled with numerous pipes and conduits. Do you know what you see here? It’s a close-up on the sheath of a vacuum pipe.

Scientific legend
The beams delivered by the SPIRAL2 linear accelerator travel in a vacuum to prevent them from being disturbed by air molecules. Numerous vacuum pumps maintain the facility under a permanent vacuum of around 10-9 millibars. The tubes that connect the pumps to the beam lines are omnipresent throughout the facility.

Read the press release : https://interactions.org/index.php/press-release/global-physics-photowalk-winners-announced