Andrea Ghez can't stop asking questions about the universe — or trying to answer them.
Her lifelong curiosity and love of science led her to a Nobel Prize and made her one of the leading astrophysicists on the subject of one of the most fascinating yet mysterious phenomena in space: black holes.
Scientists had been able to theorize about the presence of those invisible objects in space with such awesome gravitational pulls that even light can't escape. It took Ghez to find one in our own backyard.
Ghez and a scientist working separately, Dr. Reinhard Genzel, shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Ghez didn't see the actual black hole — it's invisible, remember? — but rather was able to show that it was there by painstakingly mapping the orbits and behavior of stars in the constellation Sagittarius.
"Stretching the limits of technology," announced the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in awarding the Nobel, the two competing scientists did "pioneering work that has given us the most convincing evidence yet of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way."
Find Your Passion Like Andrea Ghez
Since 1994, Ghez has conducted research and taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. At that leafy campus, she bursts with enthusiasm as head of the Galactic Center Group, mentoring graduate students and delving ever deeper into studies that put Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to the test.
Born in New York and growing up in Chicago, Ghez, 59, was subject to her own gravitational pulls early in life. There was sports, ballet, the flute, any of which could have become her lifelong passion.
Instead, it was delving into "the logic of science and math" that led Ghez to pursue astrophysics, studying at both the Massachusetts and California institutes of technology — MIT and Caltech.
Overcome Obstacles
Her timing couldn't have been better. She arrived on the front end of what was going to become a blazing meteor of innovation in astronomy.
As she entered the field, "it was clear the technology wasn't ready" to be able to look to the center of the Milky Way, Ghez said. The earth's atmosphere obscured the ability of most telescopes to get a clear look. But two developments helped change that.
One was the opening of the Keck Observatory, which, at 13,600 feet atop a mountain in Hawaii, afforded not only one of the clearest views of the heavens, but also a tennis-court-sized mirror to further enhance clarity. The other was the advent of speckle imaging, a technique that compensates for atmospheric distortion.
She needed access to Keck to carry out her experiments, but it didn't come easy. To carry out the research, she needed to use the telescope in a new way requiring some modification of the instruments. At first, she was turned away.
"We've all had speed bumps" in life, Ghez said. "Not getting telescope time in the beginning was certainly a big one."
Ghez: Don't Give Up
Part of the challenge, too, was being a female astrophysicist in a field long dominated by men. Ghez was only the fourth woman to win a Nobel in physics, the first being Marie Curie in 1903 for her research on radiation.
Choosing her words carefully, Ghez said progress was already being made when she entered the field and that it continues.
So what did it take to get that crucial telescope time at Keck? "Persistence," she replies in a single word. She gave a lot of lectures until her peers could share her glimmer of an idea.
Eventually, she got permission and sought to track the orbit of stars near the center of the galaxy. When the data came back, her team was so astounded at the results that one scrawled "holy s—-" in the margin. Improved image quality had beat expectations.
The next leap came with another new technology, adaptive optics (AO), which makes changes in a telescope's mirrors to counter atmospheric distortion. AO was so good that the team could now precisely measure the movement of stars near a suspected black hole.
"Spectral imaging allowed us to do the first series of experiments. And, you know, it was the best that could be done at the time. Adaptive optics really transformed our ability to make these kind of measurements," she said. "It's like seeing in black-and-white and going to color. It's so much richer."
Knowing One Question Leads To The Next
It was that work that cemented Ghez's place in the top ranks of astrophysics.
"Her groundbreaking imaging techniques using adaptive optics revealed the hidden supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy and opened new avenues for exploring the universe," said Shohini Ghose, a professor of physics and computer science at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada and author of "Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe."
Ghez "is an inspiration to young scientists-in-the-making around the world," Ghose added.
Little by little, black holes were giving up their secrets. What started as a three-year project would stretch into decades because the results were proving so fruitful.
Sure, there were some dead-ends. But she said even when results fall far short of expectations, a scientist still learns something.
"With each advance in the technology, we covered things we didn't expect to see. When that happens, it drives the next set of questions," she said. "As a scientist, I found those moments the most interesting ones."
Let Your Mind Wander Like Ghez
Answers to those questions don't strike her like a cosmic ray. It can be a drawn-out process. To relax and clear her brain, she swims twice a week.
"My mind is definitely wandering in the pool and sometimes it's focused on science. Sometimes it's just focused on the workout," she explained.
Inspiration is just as likely to come from meeting with students and colleagues. She digests academic papers, gives talks at other universities and engages other scientists all to keep her head in the game.
"When you sit in a room with colleagues and talk about things, someone will say something that sort of hangs in the air and makes you want to go down that (road)," Ghez said.
Tackle Fears Head On
By now, Ghez has had numerous appearances, including a TED Talk and her Nobel lecture. But she says early on, public speaking was one of her biggest fears.
The fear was so intense that Ghez at first balked at having to stand before a class and teach in graduate school. At one point when she was asked to give a talk about her research, "I shook from the head to my toes," she recalled.
Like in so many crucial moments, she gathered herself and buckled down. "My advisor basically said, you've got to learn how to get over this. You got to teach — and that was terrifying," she said.
Ghez sought to ease into the teaching role at Caltech by taking on an introductory physics class. At that time, they were almost always taught by faculty. In an early demonstration of her persistence streak, she pushed to be allowed to be assigned the class. Sure enough, she was successful and managed to overcome her public-speaking jitters.
"I have no idea how I got over it. It's just practice," she said. "It's really important to sit up in front of young women and young men and show that (it's) not just the guys who can do this."
She likes that the feedback is immediate. "If they're asleep or not paying attention, it's not a good lecture," Ghez said.
Become A Mentor Like Ghez
Today, Ghez serves as a role model, her stature enhanced by having become a Nobel laureate.
"It makes you a visible scientist," she said. "You get asked to do a lot of things. So you have to decide how you want to handle that. You have to decide what your priorities are."
Her priorities are to help students make the transition from the classroom, where dialogue usually involves questions in which the answer is known, to the research world where the questions are yet to be answered. It's not easy. It means learning to respect the data that results from an experiment in an unbiased manner so that a scientist discovers the real answer, not necessarily the one they had hoped to find.
The mentorship role feels natural to her, having had so many herself as her early career advanced. "Mentors can push you through that moment of discomfort," she said.
Working with those students can help hold interest in a project over the long term.
"It kind of rejuvenates the process. Although the process is long, you interact with people," she said. The result? "New ideas come along."
Solving the biggest questions about the universe is, after all, about asking questions.
Andrea Ghez's Keys:
- Won 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for work uncovering the secrets of black holes.
- Overcame: Initial resistance to making modifications to Keck Observatory to improve the quality of the images.
- Lesson: "With each advance in the technology, we covered things we didn't expect to see. When that happens, it drives the next set of questions."
