• Unseen World of Ultraviolet Insects

    May 6, 2026 10:30 amImage of Research

    Images

    • Alexa Rojas' entry to Image of Research
    • Alexa Rojas
    • Brandon Stauffer

    Every year, creative grad students from across the disciplines submit compelling images of their research and scholarship to the Image of Research competition. To accompany each image submission, the creator writes a short paragraph explaining how the image relates to their wider academic work, giving us a glimpse behind the scenes.

    We caught up with some of the award winners from the 2026 Image of Research competition to ask them more about their process. Enjoy this interview with Alexa Rojas, a graduate student in Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences and Third Place winner in this year’s contest, and then view the video to hear Ahab read his award-winning submission, "Unseen World of Ultraviolet Insects".

    Why did you enter Image of Research this year?

    I saw it as an opportunity to advertise how awesome insects are and how much enjoyment can be gained from working with insects out in nature. Insects are not well-loved despite their various important roles in ecosystem functioning and direct benefits to humans, so I appreciate any chance I can get to share my love for them. The ability for many insects to fluoresce under UV light in not common knowledge, so I thought it would be a fun fact to engage a wider audience.

    What was the process of coming up with your image?

    I accumulated many photos as part of my data collection over last summer, so I painstakingly looked through all the photos to choose what I thought was the best one. I initially drafted several collages of before/after photos to display the contrast between caterpillars under regular light and UV light, but I ended up deciding on a singular photo. I felt it best captured the other-worldly atmosphere I experienced when I surveyed caterpillars at night.

    What did you learn or take away from this experience?

    Alexa Rojas

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    I want to take even more photos this upcoming field season for the purpose of capturing an audience, and maybe even sparking a curiosity to get people interested in insects. I think the photos are striking, but the most striking is actually experiencing these scenes in real life, so I appreciated being able to try and convey that message in written form.

    Read Rojas' entry

    At 9:00 pm, we step into another world. We step out of the familiar landscape of corn and soybean fields in Illinois and into the strange world of a forest after dark. This world is home to millions of organisms, where some are sleeping, but others are just waking up. To answer our question, "how do caterpillars fare in forests surrounded by agriculture and pesticides?" we must answer the question, "how do we find them?" Immensely adept at camouflage and staying hidden, caterpillars are a group of insects that are notoriously difficult to find. However, one tool can level the playing field, and that's the ultraviolet flashlight. Caterpillars are mostly nocturnal, but many fluoresce under UV radiation, so I used UV flashlights to get closer to an animal that is often overlooked. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to explore an alien world, I would argue that it's an experience far more accessible than most would think. Grab a UV flashlight and UV-protective glasses, and you can uncover a whole world of glowing creatures and plants that would otherwise be unseen.

    Visit the Image of Research website for more information about this celebration of graduate student research.  


    Brandon Stauffer

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    This interview was conducted by Brandon Stauffer, Videographer here at the Graduate College. Brandon came to the Graduate College with a background in journalism and is now working to showcase the impact of Higher Education at Illinois.