Page 3 - MidWeek Kauai - Feb 10, 2021

“This prize is such a won- derful tribute to Keck,” says Ghez, who first used the Keck telescope in the ’90s. “This is really about the science that Keck opens up, and it’s one of the best places in the world to do this kind of work.”
For her efforts in identifying Sagittarius A*, Ghez jointly shares half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics with Reinhard Genzel, while the other half was awarded to University of Oxford’s Roger Penrose. Though one would think going Dutch on such a prestigious award is a little odd, Ghez explains that it’s actually the perfect demonstration of what healthy competition can bring about.
Her path to becoming a renowned astronomer in her field wasn’t as clear-cut as most would think. As a young- ster, Ghez’s dream was to be the first woman on the moon.
Black holes, in particular, caught her attention early on.
The sciences typically have fewer women in affiliated fields, but Ghez is excited to see more females stepping into leading roles — all while maintaining balance as work- ing moms in an ever-busy world. She cites the work of Marie Curie, who won Nobel Prizes in chemistry and phys- ics in 1911 and 1903, respec- tively, as well as her daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, who won the same chemistry accolade in 1935, as women of note.
“But I also wanted to be a ballerina,” she adds with a laugh.
“They’re objects that mix space and time, and defy our understanding of physics,” she shares. “It’s like a puzzle, and anything that’s a puzzle is intriguing as a researcher. You want to find interesting puzzles in which the solution can teach you more broadly about how to understand the universe.”
“I’m really thrilled that the Nobel Prize recognizes all of us,” she says. “It gives it va-
Once she started high school, it was clear that she had a clear aptitude for math and science, and after gradua- tion headed to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then to California Institute
FEBRUARY 10, 2021
KAUA‘I MIDWEEK 3
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so much,” she says. “They’ve helped me become a better scientist.”
lidity. These are hard measure- ments and (these) two groups independently came to the same conclusion.”
of Technology for graduate school. Ghez, who initially started as a math major, grew to love physics, which, she says, addressed the kinds of issues and concepts she found to be most interesting.
Fill in the blank cells using numbers 1 to 9. Each number can appear only once in each row, column, and 3x3 block. Use logic and process of elimina- tion to solve the puzzle. The difficulty level ranges from Bronze (easiest) to Silver to Gold (hardest). Answers are on page 7
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“They set a pretty high bar,” Ghez adds with a laugh.
For her part, Ghez is mom to a 19-year-old mechanical engineering major at Johns Hopkins University, and a 15-year-old whom she de- scribes as “a builder, figure-it- out kind of guy.”
“My kids have taught me
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