Neutral meson production in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC with ALICE

The first measurements of the invariant differential cross sections of inclusive π⁰ and η meson production with ALICE are presented for pp collisions at $s = 0.9$ and 7 TeV. Next-to-Leading Order perturbative QCD calculations overestimate the data at $s = 7TeV$⁠, but are consistent with the π⁰ spectrum at $s = 0.9TeV$ and with the measured π⁰/η cross section ratio at $s = 7TeV$⁠. The nuclear modification factors (R_AA) of π⁰ production at different centralities show a strong suppression with respect to pp collisions.