Augusta University
Kristen Swindells
Walking down the hall on the 2nd floor of Pavilion3, you notice all of the amazing images the Medical Illustration department has created over the last year.
Every year the Medical Illustration department students and faculty attend the Association of Medical Illustrators Conference. This year, the 72ndannual conference, was in Austin Texas and all of our medical illustration students had the opportunity to attend.
The conference is a meeting of medical illustration professionals, students and association members who come to discuss a variety of topics including business practices, art and visualization and biomedical subjects. In addition to plenary and concurrent sessions, the conference includes a Salon, an exhibition of the leading contemporary medical illustrators in the country. During the Salon, firstyear medical illustration student,Christina Pecora won an Award of Merit in the Student Editorial category for her piece “What’s Bugging Your Belly.”When asked about her experience at the conference Pecora said, “Having the experience to meet with members while in graduate school is irreplaceable and an absolute essential in defining who we individually are, where we want to go but more importantly that we should contribute to defining our Association[of Medical Illustrators]with volunteering as we all support each other.”
Along with Pecora, Medical Illustration faculty members Amanda Behr and Mike Jensen receivedan Award of Excellence in the Professional Commercial Animation category for their animation “Infertility Treatments,” as well as the Member’s Choice Award for New Mediawhich is Best in Show award for new mediafor medical illustration by vote of the membership.
In addition to our faculty and students that won awards, over 10 of our Augusta University alumni were recognized with awards for their individual and team projects. Seven of our faculty and alumni spoke at the event as well. Danielle VanBrabant, another first year student that attended the conference said that the conference was, “inspirational and sparks conversation about techniques and subject matter that are currently being used as well as being a great way to network, as hundreds of people from all corners of the industry go [to the conference] every year.”
In addition to the awards won at the 72ndAnnual Association of Medical Illustrators Conference, several medical illustration students won awards at the 26th Annual UGA/AU Scientific and Medical Illustration Exhibit:
Danielle VanBrabant (CO 2018) received the Best in Show, Stenstrom Scholarship Award for her piece “Myocardial Infarction and Anti-Platelet Aggregation Treatment.”
Christina Pecora (CO 2018) received an Award of Excellence for her surgicaliIllustration series, “Hypospadias.”
Marci Lessman (CO 2018) received an Award of Merit for her surgical illustration “Reconstructive External Rhinoplasty.”
Sunni Losito(CO 2018) received an Award of Merit for her piece “Arteries of the Male Pelvis.”
