Laura Perini
Virginia Tech, USA
Fall Term 2004
Pictorial Evidence: Naturalism and Convention

Laura Perini’s research focuses on scientific images, like diagrams, graphs, and electron micrographs. These visual representations seem to play distinctively epistemic roles in scientific reasoning, such as providing evidential support or conveying explanatory content. Her goal is to clarify what they contribute to scientific reasoning and explain how they do so.

While she was at the Center she focused on a particular kind of image: naturalistic, highly detailed pictures made from image-making techniques like electron microscopy. Her aim was to explain how they function as evidence; this resulted in a paper now under review. She also started a new project, instigated by discussions at the Center: a study of abstraction in biological images.

Laura’s stay at the Center was especially productive. She got engaged while she was here and capped off the semester with a trip to Hawaii to get married!

Pomona College, USA
Spring Term 2011
Scientific representation: what can results from studies of scientific visual representations reveal about scientific models?