Critics seem very authoritative. Wonder if they are
astrophysics professors?
Give this scientist a break! She, like all of us, had support and influence, but achieved something nobody's done before.
13
no one was suggesting that she was the sole scientist involved, which is what this article seems to be reacting to.
1
Please address Dr Katie Bouman with the respect she deserves by addressing her as a Dr in the title. She is more than a grad student, she has fully defended and been completed her PhD.
32
I also wonder who the smart person who had the phone ready to take this charming photo at exactly the right moment! That speaks to a high degree of collaboration right there. Congrats to all of them!
2
From the hunt for the nature of dark energy aka the universe expansion is speeding up to LIGO aka detection of gravitational waves to imaging this supremassive black hole the number of scientists involved are legion.
Has the era of the lone individual scientist discover theorist in astronomy physics passed into history?
1
@Blackmamba-- I read a statement from a scientist several years ago who said approximately, "The easy questions have been answered, now it takes a group to answer the hard ones." I don't know about theorists, but experiments in astronomy and physics today take teams, frequently very large ones.
8
Fascinating to me that when Schwarzchild made the original prediction by providing the first exact solution to Einstein's General Relativity, Einstein was skeptical about black holes. If only he could see this. Of course, Einstein took Max Planck's work in quantum theory and put it on strong footing with his definitive explanation of the photoelectric effect. And, he didn't really coddle to the quantum mechanics to which he made such a large contribution. To top it off, his last important paper in 1935 with Rosen and Podolsky predicted "spooky action at a distance," quantum entanglement. And, Einstein didn't like that either. But, me thinks maybe the Nobel committee might have awarded a second prize for General Relativity, ya think? "other contributions to physics" I'll say!!! No posthumous awards. Well, there sure should be!!!
As far as women in STEM, how 'bout Emmy Noether, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Einstein was somewhat patriarchical about Noether. Said she was probably the greatest female mathematician ever. Uh. She was one of the greatest period!
13
...actually, MIT (and to her great credit, Katie) have cleared up the controversy surrounding this matter ...
https://twitter.com/MIT_CSAIL/status/1116775487420997632
2
In a celebrity driven culture, I think it's beautiful to be reminded that many inventions and discoveries are marked by collaboration. I think the article was fair in highlighting Dr. Bouman and her important role. However I feel it helps that she herself is not so much modest but respectful of the others involved. There is a team spirit here often missing in our hyper-competitive world.
Thank you for the piece.
10
I'm teaching an introductory astronomy class at a local college, Palm Beach State College, and have too many women taking the class. I think helps seeing a young woman in the field. I'm going to this story class!
2
Is the purpose of this article meant to detract from Dr. Bouman's achievement with the team? Certainly seems so.
Dr. Bouman has stressed that a lot of people contributed and she was one small part. But it is the nature of these things that people connect on a personal level to an individual far easier than a team. In any big story, papers focus on individual stories to humanize it, and that's all that's happened here.
Not to mention, young girls need role models in STEM, and what better model than Dr. Bouman? What does a scientist look and sound like? Just like everyone else.
14
I have read no article in which Dr. Bouman claimed sole credit for this remarkable work. She's consistently stressed and celebrated the collaborative effort that makes such work a success. So why the effort to misrepresent her work and minimize her accomplishments?
The lede here deserves to be changed, along with the headline. Perhaps the Times should consider hiring back some of the copy editors it let go a while back.
19
The professor I most admired while in college over 50 years ago was a woman, Dr. Charlotte Z. Lemay. Her lessons were vital to my career and I found out later that she bragged about me to her family. She was modest, too. Her brilliance in physics, chemistry and mathematics helped her to be a patent holder for the first transistor. I had to discover that years later in her obituary. She'll never know all she did to help our daily lives. The notion that science has no relevance to our daily lives has no merit.
10
@bnc Dr. Lemay recognized the need to assist women studying STEM and donated to a scholarship at her alma mater to promote that end.
5
Some of the comments around the web on this issue are just ridiculous. Anyone that has worked on a big project such as this knows that it is a team effort and contributions from a spectrum of people from managers, engineers, technicians...etc. There will be people that standout among all those contributions.
In this case, much of the framework for the imaging software was conceptualized by Bouman...that is no small feat--and she deserves the credit working on it for years. (I would say too many people do not even realize what the project entailed).
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Again she only did 5% of code and Andrew Chael did the rest.
7
@Miki
Sorry, but that is wrong...she did the design framework for the code and Chael has indicated that he did not do 95% of the code.
21
@glennmr take a look at the GitHub repo
@Phong
I wrote a little Fourier analysis library. The code is available on GitHub.
I can assure you that Joseph Fourier didn’t contribute a line of code.
By your standards, that makes me that one who made the largest contribution.
6
Why is it SO difficult to be happy because of someone else's success?? It was not an accident because the research was being held for a period of time. Why not only burst happiness because of her achievement!? Instead of trying to find the black spot on a white canvas!!
8
@Raquel The issue isn't with Dr. Bouman, who seems like a fine scientist. The issue is with the media's agenda of pushing a narrative which ignores or de-emphasizes the facts.
5
"on the shoulders of giants" is an understatement here and in other instances.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_synthesis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Ryle
3
I question your use of the term "accidentally". It makes it look like she stumbled into notoriety due to her gender. The rest of your story is fine -- it points out that she has always worked as part of the team and that she gives credit to the team, as is proper. But, please rethink your headline. It's unfair to her and to the team.
7
@ceeseGreat point!
1
We will never stop learning and I congratulate all those responsible for this amazing find and its picture. In the same breath, it was impossible to keep politics out of the Black Hole as one cartoon had a picture of Trumps taxes at the center of the hole . . . just in case you were curious.
4
Dr Bouman captured a personal triumph in that snapshot she shared on facebook.
"Watching in disbelief as the first image I ever made of a black hole was in the process of being reconstructed."
That was a big moment and we got to share it with her.
Do not diminish that moment by saying "Oh, the now famous picture being featured by the Event Horizon Telescope isn't the same image. It isn't hers."
She is a contributor to that final picture through her contributions to the science. She is in there sharing the work and that magical first realization of over a decade worth of endeavor.
Some people may have assumed from the coverage that she leads the overall project. That mistake is understandable as people tune into the public reveal of this massive project. It's ok that people make mistakes. We're here to learn and how fabulous that there is so much to learn of this project.
Let's keep in mind that the evidence is clear that Dr Bouman made a significant contribution to the science. A person gets into MIT as a graduate student, graduates with a PhD in computer science and electrical engineering, snags a postdoc position with astrophysicists, and attains a tenure track position at Caltech with a lot of talent, a boat load of passion, and megaton of hard work.
Kudos to Dr Katie Bouman. My hat is off to her. She is a great representative of awesome science. We get to see farther and clearer because of her work. She will bring a whole lot of great science before our eyes.
30
@cleverclue The article isn't diminishing Katie Bouman's contribution. It merely points out that she shouldn't be put up on a pedestal above her +200 peers, which has undeniably happened this week due to social and mainstream media spinning an altered version of events, to suit a preferred narrative.
Rather than defending Bouman (which isn't necessary since the article isn't diminishing her), you can shift your focus onto the entire EHT team and their collective achievement, by applauding them for their hard work over multiple years. Every one of them has earned it.
27
@sbowesuk You are wrong here. The article absolutely does diminish her contribution. Somehow this “it’s not one person but a whole team” thing only gets really promoted when the individual singled out is female. Bouman undoubtedly deserves to be celebrated for her achievement and there was nothing “accidental” about it.
12
@Frances M The "it's not one person but a whole team" narrative began at the press conference before Dr. Bouman's viral image was posted. Shep Doeleman, the project's director, repeated statements about the collaborative effort several times during the presentation and Q&A, even, it seemed, in response to his own individual contributions. The stories (dare I say rumors) about Dr. Bouman's individual work immediately stood in contrast to the message of collaborative achievement. She did her best to combat this message, but it still got away from her, as things do in this age of viral news.
Personally, I don't doubt her immense contribution to this groundbreaking achievement. I watched her TED Talk (linked in the article), and I was amazed to find predictions of the images to come that were nearly identical to the results, and this was recorded months before the EHT took its first images. Even more impressive was her ability to explain the deeply scientific concepts to a wide audience. Whether it was her code or not, Dr. Bouman clearly held a critical role in this project and has an unbelievable career ahead of her. I can't wait to see what she does next!
4
"You didn't build that" is as true in science as in business. We all rely on many, many others - our fellow scientists, but also the taxpayers, civil servants and politicians who make the necessary infrastructure possible.
But humans also need narrative and personality to enliven this reality, and I admit I found that photo of a young scientist excited to be contributing to such an important project an absolute delight.
19
It’s great to see how there are more representations on female researchers nowadays when there are new findings in the STEM industry. This picture of Dr. Bouman shall definitely inspire the young scientists out there trying hard to pursue their interest. Let’s hope those young scientists are the ones to bump up the ratio even more so more people, regardless of their gender or ethnicity, can play a role in the future groundbreaking discoveries.
5
Finally! Thank you NYT for the profile.
And thank you to Katie Bouman for the marvelous image and for showing the world what smart, diligent women are capable of, given the chance and the necessary resources -- including respect for their ideas and abilities and potential.
13
It's so weird, or is it, how ALL great accomplishments are group endeavours. Yet we think only a few great men are accomplished. Now that a young woman is being hailed as a poster boy, we are suddenly so open and responsive to discuss the unfairness of this, to address those of the group marginalized to the sidelines of celebrity status. We are flawed in our human capacity to overide understanding of the big picture for the simplistic one - capitalism and patriarchy rely on this fact. We like to believe in ourselves without understanding that we are productions, only recognizable at the courtesy, labour and knowledge of others. So Katie Bouman played a significantly interesting role in service to this project. And she has become the celebrity of this project - not the wife, mother, admin assistant, or nameless researcher or coder. Deal with it Einsteins, and get back to being grateful that you have amazing work opportunities, and can feed your families on doing leading edge research. And also thank Katie for keeping the rest of us rubes interested and supportive.
44
Of course "all great accomplishments are group endeavours". As an example, The last time Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to a single person was back in 1992 -- since then two or three people share the prize. Unfortunately, (a large part of) the media and the social media do not understand how scientific collaboration works, but putting one person in spotlight makes it simple and fits their narrative.
Neil Armstrong is the first human to step on the moon, but he is certainly not "the" person to make it happen. Similarly, I would never put one single name "behind" other great discoveries, e.g. first observation of gravitational waves and confirmation of Higgs boson. It is an oversimplification, and is simply wrong.
It has nothing to do with gender.
21
@Zhe "Neil Armstrong is the first human to step on the moon, but he is certainly not "the" person to make it happen." Yes, literally thousands of people with a shared-vision made that happen.. That's a nice clear, clean way to make that point. Thank you.
10
Congratulations to the EHT Team! I'm thrilled to have witnessed this moment. I can't imagine what it's like to have been a part of it.
I think the photo of Dr Bouman captures the story of this project so well. It really puts you in the moment and let's you experience the thrill of scientific discovery.
39
One of the things that is wonderful in how this discovery came about is the international collaboration of both men and women. The group needed and drew upon expertise in several sub-specialties of science. Yes, individual stories should be made known. Youth, especially girls when it comes to STEM, must see the individuals involved and hear their stories. The same is true for youth who are people of color. There are surely within the collaborative group scientists who are also people of color. The message to youth that someone who is just like them can do such wonderful things is powerful.
The picture of Dr. Bouman is engaging and uplifting. That said, we do a disservice to young people, the wonderful team who accomplished this great discovery, and even to Dr. Bouman herself if she continues to be singled out as the main reason for the team's success.
32
We have arrived at an uncomfortable place where a new chasm is evolving. My guess is there are many men the participated in this effort. Aside from a passing reference to one token male researcher sent off to Antarctica, men are disregarded, Thr lack of acknowledgement of the contribution of large numbers of male scientists becomes a denigration of their effort.
15
@Bill Mahaffey
Oh brother. The article clearly states that over 200 scientists participated, 40 of whom were women. The bigger issue here is that men have written the story of science for centuries...and now it's time to include a few worthy women. Included groups who have long been invisible should not "denigrate " those who have always held the stage. It's big enough for multiple genders, races, cultures.
33
@Bill Mahaffey Hardly. We still need positive images of women scientists as so many women are still told that they're second-rate when it comes to maths and science.
13
What a wonderful story! Dr. Bouman's TED talk is very cool too. Both are worth sharing to every student across the globe.
10
@Dave
Don't worry, they'll get plenty of media attention. Right now this is a sea change, to focus on a woman's contributions so soon. When it was announced that the image would be released Wednesday, there were only male names given...
19
@Pocahontas
Women in science.
I rise in praise of the brilliant Lise Meitner, the actual discoverer of nuclear fission.
That's right, a woman made the monumental discovery.
Otto Hahn provided the data and received the Nobel, while working in Nazi Germany.
But he was puzzled by the data. He did not make the discovery.
Lise did the final interpretation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lise_Meitner
God bless her and all the brilliant women have made contributions to human knowledge.
7
@Meta1
Like most monumental discoveries, it was a collaboration that gave the insights and data that ultimately verified the postulate of nuclear fission, proposed for Uranium in 1934 by Ida Noddack, and suggested as a possibility years earlier.
From the wiki article you linked:
On 15 November 1945, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that (Otto) Hahn had been awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his discovery of the fission of heavy atomic nuclei."
Surviving correspondence shows that Hahn recognized that 'fission' was the only explanation for the presence of barium among the fission products - but he wanted additional input from Meitner.
At the time Meitner herself wrote in a letter, "Surely Hahn fully deserved the Nobel Prize for chemistry. There is really no doubt about it. But I believe that Otto Robert Frisch and I contributed something not insignificant to the clarification of the process of uranium fission—how it originates and that it produces so much energy and that was something very remote to Hahn."
All contributed, but she did not solely explain fission. She and Frisch collaborated on their explanation, as she herself says.
But her part in calculating the missing mass as matter transformed into energy was precise, and for this and other insights she had she did deserve to share in a Nobel Prize.
That she did not share in the Prize was definitely an injustice.
4
I am thrilled to see this picture and article of a project that has been going on for years. As a member of the Scientists Society of Southwest Florida (SSSWF) I work with many elementary, middle and high schools in judging their students’ STEM projects. It is wonderful to see that 20 percent of these scientists on this project happen to be women. A great tribute to what is happening in STEM throughout the world and a confirmation that our work in the SSSWF is paying off.
11
The last few centuries have represented the rise of the nation-state as the vehicle for most people's self-identity and self-esteem, but increasingly we are entering a new era where our gender, skin color, and ethnicity seem to shape our personal narratives more and more.
16
@DoctorRPP Not so much nation states as empires. I recommend listening to some of Professor Timothy Snyder's more recent lectures.
@DoctorRPP
Well said. And don't forget sexuality!
1