Northwestern’s team in a national inventors competition came back from New York this weekend with a $25,000 prize.

The two graduate students and one recent graduate participated in the Collegiate Inventors Competition, an annual contest sponsored by the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

The team won the prize for synthesizing a type of silver particle that could have applications in a variety of industries, including cosmetics, pigments, photography and biological marking.

Chemistry Prof. Chad Mirkin, who sponsored the group, said last week that the group’s research could yield not just industrial applications but also broad implications for the field.

Two of the team members, Rongchao Jin and Gabriella Metraux, currently are graduate students. The third, Yunwei Charles Cao, received his doctorate last year and is now a professor of chemistry at the University of Florida. The group discovered how to create the particles under the Mirkin’s guidance. Mirkin also will receive $5,000 in prize money.

The team was able to use fluorescent light to turn tiny particles of silver into spheres, then prisms. Mirkin said with scientists knowing what light can do, they will be able to try to create other structures with the silver, like rods.

“Once you have these new structures to play with,” Mirkin said, “it’s kind of like a kid in a candy store.”

In addition to the money, NU’s team and the other winners got a chance to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 24.

They were accompanied by representatives of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Hewlett-Packard Company, which sponsored the event.

The $50,000 grand prize in the competition went to Jamie Link of the University of California at San Diego. Link won for his entry featuring programmable silicon particles.