Computer genius who brought us the black hole image... and she’s just 29!
AS the world gasped in wonder at the first picture of a black hole, the scientist who made it possible was absent from the spotlight.
Not only was 29-year-old Dr Katie Bouman responsible for the software that allowed the photograph to be created, she was the first person to see the stunning image.
Yesterday her key role in the groundbreaking leap forward in our understanding of the universe was revealed.
Dr Bouman was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) when, three years ago, she wrote the software that allowed the most powerful telescopes on Earth to capture the image of the huge M87 black hole.
No one radio telescope is big enough to scan the skies for tiny glimmers of radiation from the collapsing star 55 million light years away. That would need a telescope dish 6,000 miles wide – and the world’s largest is only 1,000ft across.
Dr Bouman devised algorithms to stitch together data from radio telescopes in eight locations including Hawaii and Antarctica. The data was collected on individual hard drives and combined to form one clear image on Dr Bouman’s computer.
After project leaders unveiled the result on Wednesday, she shared a picture on Facebook of the moment she had her first glimpse of M87, with the caption: ‘Watching in disbelief as the first image I ever made of a black hole was in the process of being reconstructed.’ Now an assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology, she told Radio 5 Live: ‘When we saw it for the first time, we were all in disbelief. It was quite spectacular. We got really lucky with the weather. We got lucky in so many ways.’
Dr Bouman, who married longterm boyfriend Joe Leong in September, had to keep the picture secret, even from her family.
Her father Charles Bouman, an engineering professor at Purdue University in her home town of West Lafayette, Indiana, said she had told him a big announcement would be made on Wednesday. ‘She wasn’t allowed to tell us what it was, exactly, though we sort of guessed,’ he said.
Yesterday Dr Bouman’s achievement was hailed as one that would earn her a place in history and she was likened to another woman computer scientist from MIT – Margaret Hamilton, whose computer programming helped land a man on the Moon in 1969. Twitter user Tamy Emma Papin shared Dr Bouman’s Facebook post and wrote: ‘Congratulations to Katie Bouman to whom we owe the first photograph of a black hole ever. Not seeing her name circulate nearly enough.
‘And here’s to more women in science (getting their credit and being remembered in history).’
Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka said: ‘Hooray for women in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics].’
US politician Alexandria OcasioCortez wrote: ‘Take your rightful seat in history, Dr Bouman! Congratulations and thank you for your enormous contribution to the advancements of science and mankind.’