Katherine L. Bouman is a Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Electrical Engineering, and Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), with appointments as Rosenberg Scholar since 2019 and Investigator at the Heritage Medical Research Institute since 2021. She earned a B.S. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2011, an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013, and a Ph.D. from MIT in 2017. Following her doctoral studies, Bouman served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She joined Caltech as a Visiting Associate from 2018 to 2019, progressed to Assistant Professor from 2019 to 2024, Associate Professor from 2024 to 2025, and was promoted to full Professor in 2025. Her career trajectory reflects rapid advancement in academia, driven by pioneering contributions to computational methods in imaging.

Bouman's research centers on computational imaging, where she designs systems that tightly integrate algorithms and sensors to capture phenomena beyond the reach of conventional approaches. Her group leverages signal processing, computer vision, machine learning, and physics to uncover hidden signals, enabling breakthroughs in scientific observation. A key focus is her collaboration with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), contributing algorithms essential for producing the first images of supermassive black holes, including M87* in 2019 and Sagittarius A* in 2022. These efforts probe general relativity in extreme regimes and advance space science imaging techniques. Her highly cited publications include "First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope results. I. The shadow of the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way" (2022, 2578 citations), "First M87 event horizon telescope results. V. Physical origin of the asymmetric ring" (ApJL, 2019, 1692 citations), "First M87 event horizon telescope results. VIII. Magnetic field structure near the event horizon" (ApJL, 2021, 690 citations), "First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope results. III. Imaging of the galactic center supermassive black hole" (ApJL, 2022, 587 citations), and "Visual dynamics: Probabilistic future frame synthesis via cross convolutional networks" (NeurIPS, 2016, 519 citations). With over 23,000 total citations on Google Scholar, her work has profoundly influenced computational imaging and astronomy. Bouman received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2025 for her EHT contributions and computational imaging innovations.

Professional Email: klbouman@caltech.edu