Anna Guerrero

Starting at SFI July 2023

Anna studies the roles images play in human sociotechnical knowledge systems. She is particularly interested in how scientists make and use images to learn about otherwise invisible phenomena, like organelles, cells, and microbial aggregates. Drawing on methods from history, computational humanities, philosophy, microbiology, and scientific illustration, Anna documents when and how images influence scientists’ concepts, and, less obviously, when and how prior concepts influence scientific images.

Anna completed her B.S. in Microbiology at Arizona State University. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. in Biology in the Center for Biology and Society at the same institution, studying the co-evolution of images and the concept of microbial biofilms.

Anna is excited to join SFI in 2023 with her James S. McDonnell Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Understanding Dynamic and Multi-scale Systems. Here, she will study how images act as historical ledgers and social agents in complex systems. As part of this work, Anna will develop methods and computational tools that help researchers model the evolution of knowledge through image networks.