LOIS ROSSON

FOr much of the 20th century, the fastest way to produce a high-resolution image of outer space was to hire an artist to paint it by hand.

Dr. Lois Rosson is a historian of science and technology interested in how artists and illustrators shape the look of scientific subjects.

She is currently writing a book, How to Paint Space: American Astronomical Illustration and the Settlement of the Space Age Landscape, that argues that illustrators exerted far more purchase over the look of outer space than has yet been acknowledged by historical record. The book is a history of American astronomical illustration from Chesley Bonestell’s First painting of saturn to the fall of the Soviet Union.

her next project is a history of exoplanet research, the legibility of biosignatures, and the search for alien life in the universe.