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Katherine Louise Bouman (; born 1989) is an American engineer and
Bouman joined Event Horizon Telescope project in 2013. She led the development of an algorithm for imaging black holes, known as Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors (CHIRP). CHIRP inspired image validation procedures used in acquiring the first image of a black hole in April 2019, and Bouman played a significant role in the project by verifying images, selecting parameters for filtering images taken by the Event Horizon Telescope, and participating in the development of a robust imaging framework that compared the results of different image reconstruction techniques. Her group is analyzing the Event Horizon Telescope's images to learn more about general relativity in a strong gravitational field.
Bouman received significant media attention after a photo, showing her reaction to the detection of the black hole shadow in the EHT images, went viral. Some people in the media and on the Internet misleadingly implied that Bouman was a "lone genius" behind the image. However, Bouman herself repeatedly noted that the result came from the work of a large collaboration, showing the importance of teamwork in science. Bouman also became the target of online harassment, to the extent that her colleague Andrew Chael made a statement on Twitter criticizing "awful and sexist attacks on my colleague and friend", including attempts to undermine her contributions by crediting him solely with work accomplished by the team.
Bouman joined the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as an assistant professor in June 2019, where she works on new systems for computational imaging using
Event Horizon Telescope
''C-SPAN'', May 16, 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bouman, Katie Living people 1989 births American computer scientists American women academics California Institute of Technology faculty MIT School of Engineering alumni People from West Lafayette, Indiana University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni American women computer scientists Harvard Fellows Harvard University people BBC 100 Women 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American women scientists Computer vision researchers Machine learning researchers 21st-century American engineers 21st-century women engineers
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
working in the field of computer imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...
. She led the development of an algorithm for imaging black hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...
s, known as Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors (CHIRP), and was a member of the Event Horizon Telescope team that captured the first image of a black hole.
The California Institute of Technology, which hired Bouman as an assistant professor in June 2019, awarded her a named professorship in 2020. In 2021, asteroid 291387 Katiebouman was after her.
Early life and education
Bouman grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana. Her father,Charles Bouman
Charles Addison Bouman Jr. () is the Showalter Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University, where he has taught since 1989. His research focuses on applications of image processing in various co ...
, is a professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering at Purdue University.
As a high school student, Bouman conducted imaging research at Purdue University. She graduated from West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School in 2007.
Bouman studied electrical engineering at the University of Michigan and graduated summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
in 2011. She earned her master's degree (2013) and doctoral degree (2017) in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
At MIT, she was a member of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). This group also worked closely with MIT's Haystack Observatory and with the Event Horizon Telescope. She was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. Her master's thesis, ''Estimating Material Properties of Fabric through the Observation of Motion'', was awarded the Ernst Guillemin
Ernst Adolph Guillemin (May 8, 1898 – April 1, 1970) was an American electrical engineer and computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who spent his career extending the art and science of linear network analysis and synthe ...
Award for best Master's Thesis in electrical engineering. Her Ph.D. dissertation, ''Extreme imaging via physical model inversion: seeing around corners and imaging black holes'', was supervised by William T. Freeman. Prior to receiving her doctoral degree, Bouman delivered a TEDx talk, ''How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole'', which explained algorithms that could be used to capture the first image of a black hole.
Research and career
After earning her doctorate, Bouman joined Harvard University as apostdoctoral fellow
A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...
on the Event Horizon Telescope Imaging team.
Bouman joined Event Horizon Telescope project in 2013. She led the development of an algorithm for imaging black holes, known as Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors (CHIRP). CHIRP inspired image validation procedures used in acquiring the first image of a black hole in April 2019, and Bouman played a significant role in the project by verifying images, selecting parameters for filtering images taken by the Event Horizon Telescope, and participating in the development of a robust imaging framework that compared the results of different image reconstruction techniques. Her group is analyzing the Event Horizon Telescope's images to learn more about general relativity in a strong gravitational field.
Bouman received significant media attention after a photo, showing her reaction to the detection of the black hole shadow in the EHT images, went viral. Some people in the media and on the Internet misleadingly implied that Bouman was a "lone genius" behind the image. However, Bouman herself repeatedly noted that the result came from the work of a large collaboration, showing the importance of teamwork in science. Bouman also became the target of online harassment, to the extent that her colleague Andrew Chael made a statement on Twitter criticizing "awful and sexist attacks on my colleague and friend", including attempts to undermine her contributions by crediting him solely with work accomplished by the team.
Bouman joined the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as an assistant professor in June 2019, where she works on new systems for computational imaging using computer vision
Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the hum ...
and machine learning. She is an assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences, electrical engineering and astronomy as well as a Rosenberg Scholar. Bouman received a named professorship at Caltech in 2020. In 2021, Bouman was awarded the Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
Progress Medal and Honorary Fellowship.
Recognition
She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2019.References
External links
*Event Horizon Telescope
''C-SPAN'', May 16, 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bouman, Katie Living people 1989 births American computer scientists American women academics California Institute of Technology faculty MIT School of Engineering alumni People from West Lafayette, Indiana University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni American women computer scientists Harvard Fellows Harvard University people BBC 100 Women 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American women scientists Computer vision researchers Machine learning researchers 21st-century American engineers 21st-century women engineers