The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is awarding this year¡¯s Nobel Prizes for outstanding achievements by individuals in their respective fields. Recently, the Nobel Prize for physics was shared by three such scientists for their work on the understanding of black holes. In doing so, one of them made a unique history.
Andrea Ghez, who now shares half of the Nobel with Reinhard Genzel as the winner, is only the fourth woman to win a Nobel physics prize. The last such win was seen in 2018, when Donna Strickland won for her work in the field of laser physics, for the first time in 55 years.
"I'm thrilled to receive the prize and I take very seriously the responsibility associated with being, as you said the fourth woman to win the?Nobel Prize. I hope I can inspire other young women in the field," Ghez said?to reporters on Tuesday after she was announced as one of the winners.
She further added - "I think today I feel more passionate about the teaching side of my job than I have ever. Because it's so important to convince the younger generation that their ability to question, and their ability to think, is just crucial to the future of the world."
Born in New York, USA in 1965, Ghez received a BS in physics at MIT in 1987. She started out majoring in mathematics too, before taking up physics instead. She went on to complete her PhD at Caltech in 1992, and currently serves as a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California at Los Angeles since 1995.
Ghez is known for her groundbreaking work in spotting star-formations and supermassive black holes. ¡°In particular, she studies the kinematics, or interactions between stars, in order to characterize the extremely dynamic region at the galaxy¡¯s center,¡± explains a release by MIT.
Ghez¡¯s work involved challenging the already established in science. Working with black holes, Ghez and her team were able to make direct measurements of how gravity works near a supermassive black hole, a concept she describes as ¡°extreme astrophysics.¡± While Einstein¡¯s general theory of relativity was best suited to explain the findings, Ghez said that his theory ¡°is definitely showing vulnerability.¡±
¡°[A]t some point we will need to move beyond Einstein¡¯s theory to a more comprehensive theory of gravity that explains what a black hole is,¡± a release by UCLA quotes Ghez from 2019.
Prior to the Nobel Prize, Ghez has also received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008, among other awards. She was also the first woman to receive a Crafoord Prize in 2012 from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for her work in Astronomy.
But Ghez¡¯s biggest achievement in the world of science goes way past the awards. Thanks to her and her team¡¯s unparalleled work, we now know that there is a supermassive black hole in the centre of most galaxies. Their work ¡°has given us the most convincing evidence yet of a supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.¡±