Nikon Small World: Hassanain Qambari’s winning shot
Hassanain Qambari took out top prize this month in the global Nikon Small World competition for this shot, aided by research assistant Jayden Dickson.
Hassanain Qambari spent his early years in Afghanistan, the only son of a shoemaker. His family lived in Uruzgan province, sandwiched between the badlands of Helmand and Kandahar, and “life was pretty chaotic”, he recalls. “We were constantly trying to escape the war.” His father, Abdullah, finally resorted to an evacuation plan for his family: he boarded a refugee boat bound for Australia, served his time in a detention centre, found work as a butcher and a security guard – then sponsored his wife and kids to join him.
Hassanain was just seven when he lobbed in the lucky country. He’s 25 now, and doing a PhD at the University of Western Australia. His research, funded by Perth’s Lions Eye Institute, is investigating ways to make an early diagnosis of eye disease caused by diabetes – before it causes blindness. He took out top prize this month in the global Nikon Small World competition for this remarkable microscope image, aided by research assistant Jayden Dickson. It shows a rat’s optic disc – the part of the retina where all the vascular and neuronal “cables” gather to form the optic nerve, which sends visual information to the brain as electrical signals. Hassanain picked out all these tiny structures (the image depicts a tissue sample just 1mm wide) by perfusing them with a fluorescent dye then shining lasers on them to make them glow. It’s a technique called confocal fluorescence microscopy, and he loves it. “It reveals the beauty and intricacy of nature on a level that we normally wouldn’t ever see,” he says.
Abdullah, his dad, runs a house-painting business in Perth these days. Hassanain spent a few years working for him until his PhD took over. “Painting is something I’ll always be able to fall back on, if I need to,” he says. Doesn’t seem very likely, though, does it? Abdullah’s bright young son is on his way.