Micro Master

Thomas Deerinck has been at the helm of a microscope for more than four decades. And he’s got lots to show for it, including a half a dozen placements in the Nikon Small World competition.

Written byJef Akst

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TOP NOTCH: Deerinck won first place in the 2002 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition for this image of a rat cerebellum, captured using a confocal scope and fluorescent proteins. THOMAS J. DEERINCK/NIKON SMALL WORLD

Last October, 40 stories high in 7 World Trade Center, Thomas Deerinck was among the first to check out the winners of the 2014 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition, lined up around the perimeter of a room whose front windows looked out onto a panoramic view of New York City. It was the photo contest’s 40th anniversary, so the location was fitting. “It was pretty spectacular,” Deerinck recalls. A slide show of winning entries from the photo competition’s four decades featured one of his own works: a 2002 snapshot of a slice of rat cerebellum.

Deerinck has been a microscopist for nearly as long as Nikon has been running the Small World competition. He works at the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR), ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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