Prize Recipient

Andrea Mia Ghez
University of California, Las Angeles

Citation:

"For her use of speckle interferometry to obtain very high-resolution images with the Keck telescope and for her presentations to astronomers and the general public that sparkle with enthusiasm. Her research has shed new light on how stars form and on the nature of the massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way."

Background:

Dr. Ghez received her BS in Physics from MIT in 1987, her PhD in Physics from Caltech in 1992, and was a Hubble Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona.

Dr. Ghez's primary research interests are the development and application of high spatial resolution infrared imaging techniques to basic research in astronomy. In particular, she has focused on two areas, the origin and early life of stars and more recently an investigation of the distribution and nature of the matter at the center of our Galaxy.

Before taking up teaching and research, Dr. Ghez worked at UCLA in 1994, and was also a Visiting Research Scholar of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, England. Her other honors and awards include the Amelia Earhart Award, a NSF Young Investigator Award, the Annie Jump Cannon Award, a Sloan Fellowship, a Packard Foundation Fellowship, and most recently the Pierce Prize from the American Astronomical Society.

Selection Committee:

Michael S Turner (Chair), Martha H. Redi, Margaret Mary Murnane ('97 Recipient), Katharine Gebbie (Vice Chair), Shirley Chiang