The event is aimed at the CERN community and CERN Alumni and Retirees, therefore in-person attendance will require having a valid CERN access card. CERN Alumni should use this form to request CERN access cards.

Last year, CERN celebrated 70 years of groundbreaking scientific collaboration and innovation, with science communication playing a pivotal role in highlighting these achievements. Join us for an exciting series of events "The Voice of Science" centered on science communication, featuring renowned speakers who will share their expertise and insights into making complex scientific ideas accessible and engaging for all. The events will take place at the CERN Library located in Blg. 52/1-052.

The sixth talk will be by Rodrigo Ochigame. In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration published the first image of a black hole from observation. This iconic image, featuring the shadow of the supermassive black hole at the core of galaxy Messier 87, made news headlines around the world. Although the EHT published only a single image, this was the outcome of a long process of construction involving many choices. The collaboration considered different algorithms, parameters, and colors, producing countless images along the way. This presentation will examine the epistemic and aesthetic choices involved in the construction of black hole images. For each stage of the process, it will show how the images would have looked if scientists had made alternative choices, draw comparisons to historical and contemporary cases of other researchers who faced similar problems, and raise philosophical questions about the making of astronomical images and scientific evidence.

Rodrigo Ochigame is a historian and anthropologist of computing and artificial intelligence, and an assistant professor at Leiden University. Their current research examines the epistemology of computational modeling, especially machine learning, in diverse fields of scientific research, including pure mathematics, particle physics, radio astronomy, and climate science. Ochigame holds a BA with highest honours from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

This presentation is based on joint work with Emilie Skulberg (University of Copenhagen) and Jeroen Van Dongen (University of Amsterdam). - Information extracted from Dr. Rodrigo Ochigame website.