Katie Bouman
Bouman was instrumental in imaging a black hole
Bouman’s algorithm helped us to image the invisible
© Caltech
In 2019 the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) – a global array of radio telescopes working together as part of an international effort – captured an image of the black hole that resides in Messier 87, for the first time revealing what these galactic gobblers truly look like. Katie Bouman was one of the brilliant minds behind the scenes, contributing code to the algorithm that made processing the telescope data into an image a possibility.
Bouman grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana, and even as a high school student was conducting imaging research at the local Purdue University. It was in her final year of school in 2007 that she first learned about the EHT. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 2011, Bouman furthered her studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earning her master’s and then doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science.