The 29-year-old woman behind the first photo of a black hole

A graduate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Katie Bouman led the software development team that helped achieve this unprecedented feat that seemed impossible. So far.

• Technology shouldn't just be a boy's club

Bouman's algorithm served as the basis for the Even Horizon Telescope to take a spectacularly clear photo of a black hole in a galaxy 53.49 million light years from Earth. Nothing more and nothing less than a network of 8 telescopes linked to each other were needed to get so close to something so far away.

Here's the moment when the first black hole image was processed, from the eyes of researcher Katie Bouman. #EHTBlackHole #BlackHoleDay #BlackHole (v/@dfbarajas) pic.twitter.com/n0ZnIoeG1d

— MIT CSAIL (@MIT_CSAIL) April 10, 2019

The 29-year-old scientist, who began developing the algorithm three years ago, now occupies a deserved place in history. However, she has taken great care to emphasize that this has been a team effort. "The algorithm of someone or just one person did not make this image, it required the incredible talent of a team of scientists from all over the world and year after year.The Commission has been working hard to develop the tool, data processing, imaging methods and analysis techniques that were necessary to achieve this impossible feat.It's been a real honor, and I'm very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with all of you," she said on her Facebook account.

Left: MIT computer scientist Katie Bouman w/stacks of hard drives of black hole image data.

Right: MIT computer scientist Margaret Hamilton w/the code she wrote that helped put a man on the moon.

(image credit @floragraham)#EHTblackhole #BlackHoleDay #BlackHole pic.twitter.com/Iv5PIc8IYd

— MIT CSAIL (@MIT_CSAIL) April 10, 2019

Of course, Katie is not the first female scientist to achieve a milestone in this field, nor is she the only one. She's just one of a long list that, luckily, doesn't stop growing. The good thing is that now, and not as in the old days, the women behind the great deeds actually get some recognition. And yes, that's why it is necessary to write about it...