Two Italian photos on the podium of the Global Physics Photowalk 2025

13 February 2026

It was Marco Donghia and Matteo Monzali who took the Italian pictures that made it to the podium of the Global Physics Photowalk 2025, the international competition that invites participants to recount particle physics research through photography. Born from an idea of the Interactions collaboration, this initiative transforms laboratories around the world into forges of visual testimony, capable of conveying not only the precision and complexity of science, but also the profoundly human dimension of research and its constant striving towards understanding the universe.

From the United States, Switzerland, Japan, France, Canada and Italy – with the INFN National Laboratories of Frascati, Gran Sasso and Legnaro – more than 100 amateur and professional photographers took part in this adventure, visiting 16 laboratories where the fundamental nature of matter and the laws governing the cosmos are studied, answers are sought about the origin of the universe and its ultimate constituents, the mystery of dark matter is investigated and innovative technologies are developed with significant benefits for society. The awarded works offer an unprecedented glimpse into all this, and in particular into the people and infrastructures that make some of the most ambitious scientific investigations of our time possible.

Each participating laboratory hosted its own local edition of the Photowalk during 2025 and then submitted the three most significant images to the global competition. From the final collection of 48 images, the three winning photographs were selected by an exceptional jury, composed of Dmitri Denisov, Associate Deputy Director of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Tabea Rauscher, Creative Lead at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and, from 1 January 2026, Head of Communications and Marketing at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, and Will Warasila, freelance photographer for the New York Times.

First place photo in the international edition of the Physics Photowalk 2025

Taking first place was Marco Donghia’s photograph, which depicts a young researcher at work at the Cryogenic Laboratory for Detectors (COLD) at the INFN National Laboratories of Frascati, where a cryostat just a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero allows scientists to detect extremely weak and rare signals, such as those that could be produced by dark matter in our galaxy.

“The image stood out for its clear visual storytelling and masterful use of light, which leads the eye through the scene and emphasises the moment of discovery”, commented judge Tabea Rauscher. “The researcher appears small in relation to the cryostat, highlighting the scale of the technology while keeping the human presence at the centre. The lighting creates a quiet, almost cinematic atmosphere that captures both the intensity and the solitude of scientific work”.

“Finding out I had won left me speechless”, declared the winner Marco Donghia. “The cryostat I photographed is just a few fractions of a degree above absolute zero, yet this recognition filled me with such warmth and emotion that no cryogenic temperature could cool them down”.

Judge Dmitri Denisov noted that while the judges chose Donghia’s photograph for its ability to convey the “deep connection between the apparatuses used in particle physics and the human developing them”, the second- and third-place photographs were chosen for their “deep looks into the inner workings of experiments and impressive display of colors”.

Second place was awarded, in fact, to the vividly coloured shot by Matteo Monzali, already winner of the national edition, depicting a detail of the AGATA (Advanced GAmma Tracking Array) photon detector paired with the PRISMA magnetic spectrometer: two instruments of the TANDEM–ALPI–PIAVE accelerator complex at the INFN National Laboratories of Legnaro, used in low- and medium-energy nuclear physics experiments.

First place winner in the Italian edition of the Physics Photowalk 2025

And in third position, from the Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CNRS), we find the extremely vivid image by Hugo Pardinilla, which takes us inside a KM3NeT/ORCA photomultiplier, the French detector that is part of the gigantic neutrino telescope studying the universe from the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.

Many other images, in addition to the winners, impressed the jury.

“Serving as a judge for the 2025 Global Physics Photowalk, I was struck by the range and sensitivity of the submissions”, said judge Will Warasila. “The photographs move between abstraction and lived experience – finding form, rhythm and quiet beauty in scientific spaces, while foregrounding the people whose labor and curiosity make this work possible. Across geographies and institutions, these images show how photography can slow us down, make complex systems legible and remind us that science is not only technical, but deeply human”.

Alongside the jury’s ranking, the public was also able to draw up its own, voting for their favourite images online from 13 to 27 January 2026.

On the right, the three images that won over the public: in first place, the photograph taken by Yannig Van De Wouwer at the Large Heavy Ion National Accelerator (GANIL, CNRS/CEA), in Caen, France; in second place, another photograph by the same author, taken in the same laboratory, offering an extreme close-up of the casing of a vacuum tube; in third place, Matteo Monzali’s picture at the INFN National Laboratories of Legnaro, which had already secured second position in the jury ranking. Here it is possible to admire the three photographs in their full format.

The winning photographs and other selected images are on display these days (from yesterday, 12 February, to 14 February) at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in Phoenix, Arizona, at stand 113.

The Global Physics Photowalk is organised by the Interactions collaboration, an international network of particle physics institutions, and has now reached its fifth edition. Previous editions took place in 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2018.