Prof. Andrea Ghez recognized as UCLA's FWC Woman of Distinction

Whether you meet Professor Andrea Ghez in the hallways of the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, at the UCLA’s Faculty Center with her postdocs, at the Royal Society of London receiving the Bakerian medal, or listening to her crisp and direct answers to “37 questions” as UCLA optimist, you will notice: she is fully engaged, direct, passionate about her work, and inspirational speaker. 

Prof. Andrea Ghez presents her research, April 18, 2017 as the recipient
of the UCLA's Faculty Women's Club WOMAN of DISTINCTION AWARD

In a cosmic regularity and predictability, Prof. Ghez, MIT (1987) and CalTech graduate (1992), is awarded with a series of prestigious awards; just a few examples include:

2004 elected to the National Academy of Science

2008 MacArthur Fellow “genius grant” for her work in surmounting the limitations of earthbound telescopes

2012 The Crafoord Prize for Astronomy (some equal it to the Nobel Prize)

2015 The Bakerian Medal from the Royal Society of London (est. 1665; 1775).

In order to "see" invisible exotic objects, Prof. Ghez uses her own techniques of adaptive optics for crisper images in order to observe otherwise unobservable monsters.

The three thrusts: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, EDUCATION

To inspire young women to reach for the stars, Prof. Ghez co-authored a children's book. She brought many copies yesterday, and upon quick perusal of several pages, I learned: that inspiring teachers can be powerful in a child's curiosity and choices, that asking questions gets you started, that solving puzzles is exciting, that access to well written books matter, that parental support is an imperative, that finding a right discipline to study is rarely a linear process, and being at a right time and place may help.

Prof. Ghez co-authored a children's book"You can be a woman ASTRONOMER"

This little book asked the questions such as, are stars born alone or double, what is the life cycle of stars, do you like to explore, what stardust really is, and many others. If you want to learn more, take Prof. Ghez's INTRO to ASTRONOMY class at UCLA.

Andrea Ghez with Zorana Ercegovac