Katie Bouman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Katie Bouman
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Bouman speaking about the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019
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| Born |
Katherine Louise Bouman
1989 (age 35–36) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | CHIRP algorithm |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Extreme Imaging via Physical Model Inversion: Seeing Around Corners and Imaging Black Holes (2017) |
| Doctoral advisor | William T. Freeman |
Katherine Louise Bouman (born 1989), often called Katie Bouman, is an American engineer and computer scientist. She works on creating images using computers, a field called computational imaging. She helped create a special set of computer instructions, or algorithm, for taking pictures of black holes. This algorithm is known as Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors. Katie was also a key member of the Event Horizon Telescope team. This team made history by capturing the very first image of a black hole.
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) hired Bouman as a professor in 2019. In 2020, she received a special named professorship there. In 2021, an asteroid was named after her: 291387 Katiebouman. She became an associate professor in 2024.
Early Life and Education
Katie Bouman grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana. Her father, Charles Bouman, is a professor at Purdue University. He teaches about electrical and computer engineering.
When she was in high school, Katie already started doing research on imaging at Purdue University. She finished high school in 2007.
Katie went to the University of Michigan to study electrical engineering. She graduated with top honors in 2011. Later, she earned her master's degree in 2013. In 2017, she received her PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
At MIT, she was part of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). This group worked closely with MIT's Haystack Observatory. They also collaborated with the Event Horizon Telescope project. Before getting her PhD, Bouman gave a TEDx talk. It was called "How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole." In this talk, she explained the computer methods that could be used to capture the first image of a black hole.
Research and Career
After finishing her PhD, Katie Bouman joined Harvard University. She worked as a researcher on the Event Horizon Telescope Imaging team.
Bouman joined the Event Horizon Telescope project in 2013. She helped lead the creation of the CHIRP algorithm. This algorithm is very important for making clear images of black holes. CHIRP helped create the procedures used to check images. These checks were vital for getting the first image of a black hole in April 2019.
Katie played a big part in the project. She helped check the images and choose settings for filtering them. She also helped develop a strong system for imaging. This system compared results from different ways of rebuilding images. Her team is now studying the Event Horizon Telescope's images. They want to learn more about how general relativity works in places with very strong gravity.
Katie Bouman received a lot of attention from the media. A photo of her reaction to seeing the black hole's shadow went viral. Some people online mistakenly thought she was the "lone genius" behind the image. However, Bouman herself always said that the image was the result of a huge team effort. She showed how important teamwork is in science.
Bouman joined the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as a professor in June 2019. There, she works on new ways to create images using computer vision and machine learning. She is now an associate professor of computing and mathematical sciences, electrical engineering, and astronomy. She is also a Rosenberg Scholar. In 2021, Bouman received the Royal Photographic Society Progress Medal.
Recognition
The BBC recognized her as one of their 100 women of 2019. In 2024, Bouman was given a Sloan Research Fellowship.
See also
In Spanish: Katie Bouman para niños
