Frontier of Black Hole Imaging with the Event Horizon Telescope

Tuesday 27 Oct 2026, 10:00 → 11:00 Asia/Shanghai

Tsung-Dao Lee Institute/S4F-SW - Open Area (Tsung-Dao Lee Institute)

Kazunori Akiyama

Title: Frontier of Black Hole Imaging with the Event Horizon Telescope
Time: 10:00-11:00 (UTC+8), 27 October 2026, Tuesday
Host: Yosuke Mizuno
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Meeting ID: 793254914 (no password)

Abstract:
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a premier facility for exploring the Universe at the highest angular resolution, utilising a global millimetre and submillimetre VLBI array. The EHT has opened a new era in black hole astrophysics through landmark achievements, including the first horizon-scale images of the supermassive black holes M87* and Sgr A*, as well as spatiotemporally resolved studies of the dynamics and magnetic field structures in the immediate vicinity of event horizons. The EHT community envisions a new generation of black hole science enabled by substantial upgrades, including multi-frequency capabilities and extensions of the array on the ground and in space, such as the proposed Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) mission. These developments are driving the creation of next-generation algorithms and software to meet the rapidly growing demand for larger-scale and more sophisticated modelling of black holes. This talk will provide a brief overview of current EHT results and introduce future science opportunities with next-generation arrays, including both ground-based upgrades and space-based extensions such as BHEX. I will also briefly discuss the emerging AI-enabled frontier of computational imaging and its role in addressing the challenges posed by future facilities.

Short bio:
Kazunori (Kazu) Akiyama is a Professor and Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellow at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK. His research lies at the intersection of astronomy, fundamental physics, and computational imaging, with a particular focus on black holes at the highest angular resolutions. He received his BSc in Physics from Hokkaido University and his MSc and PhD in Astronomy from the University of Tokyo in Japan. Before joining Heriot-Watt in March 2026, he spent over a decade at MIT Haystack Observatory, where he held positions as a JSPS Overseas Fellow, NRAO Jansky Fellow, and later MIT Research Scientist and principal investigator. Akiyama is Deputy Project Scientist of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration and served as its inaugural Imaging Working Group Lead, co-leading the imaging efforts that delivered the first images of the black holes M87* and Sagittarius A*. He also holds leadership roles within the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) mission concept. His work develops novel observational and computational techniques for probing black holes and strong gravity.