Milena Russo's winning design

Milena Russo, MSc student, in Dr. Baohua Liu's Lab (CSB), won this year competition for the UTM Biology Seminar Series tshirt design.

Biology and visual arts are my two of my greatest passions. Being able to combine these into one project was extremely exciting for me! My inspiration for this design came from the variety of fields in biology research, from ecology and evolution, through neuroscience and physiology, to cell and molecular biology to the environment. I wanted to capture all of these diverse areas of biology to create one cohesive design. In sketching out some ideas, I realized that one of my microscope sketches looked like a G! This is what led me to transform different elements into the letters of biology. In this way, I was able to connect each area of biology artistically to reflect the collaborative research in the Department of Biology at UTM.

Milena, an University of Toronto Scholar, when not studying and researching, she is either painting, swimming or enjoying the outdoors with her family and friends.