UCLA Professor & CALTECH ALUM WINS NOBEL 2020 Nobel Prize in physics
On October 6, 2020, it was announced that Andrea Ghez, UCLA’s Lauren B. Leichtman and Arthur E. Levine Professor of Astrophysics, was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics.
Ghez shares half of the prize with Reinhard Genzel of UC Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. The Nobel committee praised them for “the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.” The other half of the prize was awarded to Roger Penrose of the University of Oxford “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity.”
“I’m thrilled and incredibly honored to receive a Nobel Prize in physics,” said Ghez, who is director of the UCLA Galactic Center Group. “The research the Nobel committee is honoring today is the product of a wonderful collaboration among the scientists in the UCLA Galactic Center Orbits Initiative and the University of California’s wise investment in the W.M. Keck Observatory.
“We have cutting-edge tools and a world-class research team, and that combination makes discovery tremendous fun. Our understanding of how the universe works is still so incomplete. The Nobel Prize is fabulous, but we still have a lot to learn.”
She earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from MIT in 1987 and a doctorate from Caltech in 1992, and she has been a member of the UCLA faculty since 1994. When she was young, she wanted to be the first woman to walk on the moon.
At a UCLA news conference hours after the Nobel announcement, Ghez discussed her research and shared lessons from throughout her career.
Asked about the potential for competition among astronomers to make the next major discovery, she said it took her about 10 years to learn the approach that has continued to serve her: “Focus on getting the science right, rather than being first.”
Among her future goals, she said, is learning and testing how gravity works near a supermassive black hole.
Ghez also encouraged young students who love science to pursue their dreams and learn how to overcome obstacles. “Follow your passions,” she said, “and be persistent.... Find comfort with discomfort.”
And she acknowledged that she is pleased to be recognized as a role model for young women, as she has been for decades. She published “You Can be a Woman Astronomer” in 1995.
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