The national stage of the international Wiki Science Competition has wrapped up in Kazakhstan, with Nazarbayev University serving as the organizer. The strongest entries from the national round will now represent the country at the international finals scheduled for February 2026, DKNews.kz reports.
This year’s contest attracted strong interest, receiving 517 submissions from across Kazakhstan. Alongside professional researchers, participants included travelers and naturalists who documented the country’s unique landscapes and biodiversity.
Science through a visual lens
The competition evaluated works across seven categories:
- People in Science
- Microscopic Images
- Non-photographic Media
- Image Sets
- Wildlife and Nature
- Astronomy
- General category
Bibigul Makazhanova, coordinator of the Kazakhstan round and science communication manager at Nazarbayev University’s Research Administration, noted that the contest’s second edition reflects growing interest in visual science communication.
“The competition gives scientists an opportunity to showcase their work and reminds us that science can be not only meaningful but also visually compelling,” she said. “At a time when the line between human-created and AI-generated imagery is becoming less clear, human observation, professional perspective, and research intuition are especially important.”
Open access for global knowledge
All submissions from Kazakhstani participants have been published on Wikimedia Commons under open licenses. This makes them accessible worldwide for educational and popular science purposes and contributes to Wikipedia’s global knowledge base.
An independent jury made up of representatives from the scientific and creative communities, civil society, and media evaluated the works. The selection criteria included:
- Scientific relevance
- Visual quality
- Completeness of description
- Originality
- Expert assessment
Jury member and researcher Alexandr Arbuz highlighted the wide range of techniques used by participants.
“I was impressed by the diversity of images—from electron, confocal, and classical microscopy to artistic scientific photography. Selecting the best was not easy; many works were equally strong,” he said.
Category winners announced
The competition winners in each category included:
- Nature: The “Three Brothers” mountain in the Karynzharyk tract
- People in Science: Saxaul planting on the dried bed of the Aral Sea
- Microscopic Images: E. coli bacteria at ×25,000 magnification
- Image Set: Urban air particles under a microscope
- Astronomy: Transit of the International Space Station across the Moon
- Non-photographic Media: Video work Northern Lights in the Steppes of Kazakhstan
- General Category: A robotic arm holding a transparent sphere refracting polarized light
Recognition and public outreach
Winners in all seven categories will receive cash prizes of 200,000 tenge, provided by the competition’s general sponsor, the NU Impact Foundation.
Selected works will also be showcased in an art exhibition at Nazarbayev University, helping introduce scientific photography to a broader public audience and highlighting the role of visual storytelling in modern science communication.
