Sheperd Doeleman

Sheperd Doeleman directs the Event Horizon Telescope project aimed at making the first-ever image of a supermassive black hole. Through Harvard University and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Shep leads the team that is staring into the center of the Milky Way. The EHT tests, using a global network of observatories to form an Earth-sized virtual telescope, the predictions of Einstein's Theory of Gravity at the very edge of a black hole—the event horizon. To do this, Shep and his team are observing minute variations in radio emission wavelengths in hopes of capturing the predicted silhouette of this extreme astronomical object. An adventurous researcher, he received his B.A. from Reed College, and left soon after for a year in Antarctica, where he conducted multiple space-science experiments at the McMurdo Station. With an appreciation for the challenges and rewards of instrumental work in difficult circumstances, Shep completed a Ph.D. in Astrophysics at MIT.

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