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After sexist trolls of social media tried to reduce the role of computer scientist Katie Bouman in capturing the very first image of a black hole of the week by claiming that a male colleague had did most of the work, this colleague had sent them a message on Twitter.
Andrew Chael, a Harvard graduate student, a member of the international team who took the historic photo, defended Bouman on Thursday night against sexist smears, explaining that his work was critical to developing an algorithm for capturing it. picture.
"Although I appreciate the congratulations for a result on which I have worked hard for years, if you congratulate me because you have a sexist vendetta against Katie, please go away and rethink your priorities in life, "wrote Chael.
Chael made it clear, explaining that Bouman, an assistant professor at Caltech, had participated in the development of the algorithm while he was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT. He praised her "as an example of women's leadership" in the fields of science and technology.
"Although I wrote a lot of the code for one of these pipelines, Katie has contributed immensely to the software," Chael said. "It would never have worked without his contributions and the work of many others."
More than 200 scientists have worked on the Event Horizon telescope, a global collaboration that captures the image of the black hole.
Chael denied the claim that he wrote "850,000 lines of code", explaining that "many of these" lines "" are taken from existing "model files".
"The current software contains about 68,000 lines and it does not matter how many I personally wrote," he writes.
Chael suggested in his Twitter feed that sexist trolls seem to have chosen as an accessory to support their false narrative.
"It was obviously upset by the fact that a woman became the face of this story and they decided:" I will find someone who reflects my story instead, "he said. Chael at the Washington Post on Friday.
He added that "it was ironic that they choose me" because, as a gay man, he is also part of an under-represented group in the field of science.
"I am delighted that Katie is recognized for her work and inspires people as an example of women's leadership in STEM," wrote Chael. "I am also delighted that she pointed out that it was a team effort that involved many beginning scientists, including many young women scientists."
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