2021 Banners HenryDraper
Sheperd Doeleman, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard University & Smithsonian, and Heino Falcke, Radboud University, Nijmegen, received the 2021 Henry Draper Medal.
Doeleman and Falcke are colleagues known for their vision and leadership within the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, which envelops theory, instrumentation, observation, and analysis through the engagement and concerted coordination of international radio telescopes. Both scientists are pivotal in realizing the imaging of the supermassive black hole in the M87 galaxy, supporting Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Their work has attracted both scientific and public interest.
Sheperd Doeleman is honored for discovering event horizon scale structures in supermassive black holes through pioneering work in radio interferometry, and for his decades-long leadership in developing instruments and global arrays to produce the first black hole image, opening a new window on gravity and physics.
Heino Falcke is honored for conceiving of black hole imaging using radio interferometry on a global scale, which led to the first image of a supermassive black hole, and for establishing new measurements that provide knowledge for perception and insight into the nature of gravity and physics in extreme conditions.
The Henry Draper Medal is awarded every four years and is presented with a $25,000 prize. The Medal honors a recent, original investigation in astronomical physics, of sufficient importance and benefit to science to merit such recognition.
