INTERESTING FACTS ON Katie Bouman wiki, bio, age, height, her Black Hole discovery and Katie Bouman background!
It’s been a historical achievement for science. And an even bigger milestone for women.
Yesterday, we got to see the first ever image of a black hole. And Katie Bouman was one of the keys to that discovery.
More than 200 researchers from across the world were working on the project for years- from physicists to mathematicians and computer science experts.
Six years ago, Katie Bouman joined the group and three years ago, she helped to develop an algorithm that eventually captured the first-of-its-kind image of a supermassive black hole in galaxy M87.
Following that landmark discovery, Katie has become a toast of social media and a new trademark of woman empowerment.
Who is Katie Bouman? How old is she? Is she married? Who is her husband?
As we begin with her wiki, bio, age, birthday, put on hold to see how Katie Bouman helped to produce the image of a black hole.
Born Name
Katherine Louise Bouman
Nick Name
She is generally recognized as Katie Bouman.
Age
Her documented birthday is May 9, 1989. That makes her age 29 years old as of 2019.
Sun Sign
Taurus
Residence
Indiana
Nationality
American
Education
Katie went to a high school in West Lafayette, Indiana. Then, she did her undergraduate study on electrical engineering at the University of Michigan.
After a bachelor’s degree, she enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and finished her post-graduate study on computer science and artificial intelligence. The 29-year-old also did her doctorate on computer vision from the same alma mater.
During her time at MIT, she was a member of MIT Haystack Observatory. The National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship supported her post-graduate study.
Katie’s was awarded Ernst Guillemin Award for best Masters Thesis for her thesis titled Estimating Material Properties of Fabric through the observation of Motion.
After her doctorate, the Indiana native joined Event Horizon Telescope Imaging team in Harvard University.
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Occupation
Currently, Katie Bouman is working in Event Horizon Telescope team and she plans to continue that position.
She has accepted to work as an Assistant Professor in the CMS department at Caltech beginning in 2019.
Family
- Father: Charles Bouman
- Mother: Cristina Bouman
- Sister: Amanda Bouman
Boyfriend / Spouse
Katie looks young for her age but, she is already taken. This MIT graduate is married to husband Joe Leong for the last seven months.
Source: Facebook
The two dated for sometime before finally tying the knot in September 2, 2018. Bouman went to Facebook and posted their wedding photo on December 9th, 2018.
Katie Bouman’s husband Joe Leong is a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The couple married in Michigan in the presence of their family and loved ones.
Race / Ethnicity
White
Hair Color
Brunette
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Best Known For
- Developing an algorithm that produced the first image of a black hole:- Speaking to CNN, the 29-year-old explained,
“We developed ways to generate synthetic data and used different algorithms and tested blindly to see if we can recover an image,”
Source: Tweeter
By using a technology called interferometry, the Event Horizon Telescope project gathered millions of gigabytes of data about M87. Then the algorithms created by Katie Bouman and her team were used to “distill noisy, messy information into one comprehensible picture”.
algorithms created by Katie Bouman and her team were used to “distill noisy, messy information into one comprehensible picture”.
2. 2017 TED talk “How to take a picture of a black hole?”
In the talk, Katie elaborated “getting this first picture will come down to an international team of scientists, an Earth-sized telescope and an algorithm that puts together the final picture.”
3. Women Empowerment:
Studies have reported that 30% of the world’s researchers are women. Katie is recognized for contributing to a field where women are the minority. On her recent interview, the computer expert said,
“But I do sometimes think about it. How do we get more women involved?
One key is showing that when you go into fields like computer science and engineering, it’s not just sitting in a lab putting together a circuit or typing on your computer.”
