The Timpano award is presented each year at the Oklahoma Microscopy Society (OMS) conference to the student with the best oral presentation. My name is Michael Anderson and I was awarded this in 2018. I offered to write these sentences for OMS to advertise this wonderful opportunity because it was a transformative experience for me and my career. Upon receiving the Timpano award in 2018, OMS provided a paid trip to the Microscopy & Microanalysis conference in Baltimore. I was invited to a platform presentation and my abstract was published by the Cambridge Press in Microscopy and Microanalysis (doi.org/10.1017/S1431927618007274). The Timpano award has opened many experiences and opportunities that I otherwise would have miss out on. So, I encourage every with microscopy data/images to prepare an oral presentation and compete for the OMS 2021 Timpano award!