Andrea Ghez

Andrea M. Ghez, professor of Physics and Astronomy and Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics, is one of the world’s leading experts in observational astrophysics and heads UCLA’s Galactic Center Group. She is best known for her ground-breaking work on the center of our Galaxy, which has led to the best evidence to date for the existence of supermassive black holes. Ghez has received numerous honors and awards including the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy from the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Bakerian Medal from the Royal Society of London, a MacArthur Fellowship, election to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Oxford in 2019, and was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy.
Advances in high resolution imaging technology enabled Ghez’s work and her group to continue pushing the frontiers of these technologies forward. She serves on several leadership committees for the W. M. Keck Observatory, which hosts the largest telescopes in the world, and the future Thirty Meter Telescope. Ghez is also very committed to the communication of science to the general public and inspiring young girls to explore science.