Lab on a Chip congratulates Tijmen Hageman and colleagues, winners of the first μTAS Video Competition, created in partnership with Dolomite Microfluidics and supported by the CBMS (the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society).
At the μTAS conference in October 2014 Lab on a Chip Executive Editor, Harpal Minhas (above left) and Dolomite Microfluidics Group Chief Sales Officer, Omar Jina (above right) presented Tijmen (above middle) with his award and a $2500 gift certificate to spend on dolomite equipment.
Prior to the conference, μTAS participants were invited to submit short, scientifically or educationally focused videos. The winning group, a collaboration of researchers from the University of Twente and the Korean Institute of Science and Technology produced a video demonstrating that bacteria can be manipulated by a magnetic field by using magnets to teach bacteria to line dance – and it looks like they had a lot of fun during the making!
Watch ‘Line Dancing Magnetotactic Bacteria‘ online now!
Ph.D student, Tijmen Hageman directed the video titled ‘Magnetotactic Bacteria.’
“The idea of dancing bacteria existed for some time already, and we decided to make it all in the style of Texas. We think we succeeded in introducting these extraordinary organisms to the public in a remarkable way and hope it will have made our research more visible,” he explains.
Like many studens, Tijmen is currently undecided about what to do after completion of his Ph.D. “I have some years left, and who knows…more videos prehaps” he says.
Tijmen can not take full credit for the winning video and we would also like to congratulate the following for their contribution:
Andreas Manz: Actor (bacteria)
Tijmen Hageman: Actor, director
Marc Pichel: Writer/ideas, cultivation
Caspar Abelmann: Animations
Line dancers: Ahyeon Gyeon, Jaewon Hwang, Jang Mi, Sangin Park, Jooyoung Im, Deepti Mittal, Marc Pichel and Tijmen Hageman
And the rest of the team for ideas and feedback!
