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Life Unseen: Judges

Competition entries were anonymised and judged by a panel of scientists and artists. Learn more about our judging panel below.

Eliza Wolfson – Scientific Illustrator

Based in Bristol, Eliza Wolfson is a scientific illustrator and microbiologist. She illustrates biological and scientific concepts for a variety of different audiences, having been commissioned across 4 continents of the world. She has a decade of experience illustrating journal and book covers, games, colouring books, comics and graphical abstracts. Eliza also designed the Microbiome Innovation Centre logo and branding. You can view Eliza’s work and get in contact with her here.

Leo Kay - Artist

Leo Kay is a social artist, performer, facilitator and director of cross disciplinary performance. His current social art practice: ‘The Bakery Of Slow Ideas’ engages feminist and decolonial art practice, explorations of the Microbiome, ritual, divination, play, participation, witchery, deep listening and other socio-political acts directed at reclaiming tools of self governance. Along with artist/producer Anna Smith, he has previously collaborated with the MIC as part of a recent project called “The Instinct Lab” which is delivered as part of the creative collaboration Unfinished Business. He is very excited to be part of the judging team for this innovative prize and to be continuing a creative connection with The Microbiome innovation centre. 

National Biofilms Innovation Centre

The National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC) is a leading Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) funded by BBSRC and Innovate UK, driving breakthroughs in biofilm research and industry collaboration. Since 2021, NBIC has run Biofilm Create! a photography and art competition which works to raise awareness of NBIC and its research, and the many societal and economic impacts of biofilms. NBIC and MIC collaborate on multiple projects and we are grateful to NBIC colleagues Jo Slater-Jefferies, Natasha Nater, Jay Sangha and Natalia Romo Catalan for helping us to judge our first microbiome art competition. Biofilm Create! 2025 is open for entries until Friday 17 October 2025.

Jo Fothergill – Microbiome Innovation Centre

Jo is a Professor of Medical Microbiology, Director of the Trailfinder-CF Innovation Hub and Director of the Microbiome Innovation Centre. Beyond science, Jo loves all things creative, including jewellery making, dance and painting. It has been a highlight of her year to run and help judge the MIC art competitions.

Steve Paterson – Microbiome Innovation Centre

Steve is a Professor of Genetics, Co-Director of the Centre for Genomic Research and Deputy Director of the Microbiome Innovation Centre. Steve brings a thoughtful, analytical eye to the judging panel, and has been particularly impressed with the variety and originality of this year’s entries.

Jamie Hall — Microbiome Innovation Centre

Jamie is a Senior Lecturer in microbial evolution and is author of a series of comics exploring microbial evolution (Luna and Simon, www.andthemicrobes.org). He can often be found making things, including ceramics, knitwear, and model ships, and enjoys discovering how artistic perspectives can bring new understanding to science (and vice versa). Judging this year’s entries has provided many interesting examples.