“THE SCIENCE KEEPS ME GOING.”

To Infinity And Beyond

When Andrea Ghez won the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, she was prevented from receiving her award in the typical fashion by a very earthbound phenomenon—the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the end of 2022, Ghez, UCLA’s Lauren B. Leichtman and Arthur E. Levine Professor of Astrophysics and director of the Galactic Center Group, was among the guests of honor celebrated at an in-person ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, during Nobel Week.

Keeping a storied tradition alive, Ghez signed a chair at the Nobel Prize Museum and joined in the festivities, never losing sight of the curiosity that has driven her entire career.

“It amazes me every time we go to the telescope to think, ‘Here is this light that we’re capturing that’s been on a journey for 26,000 years,’” she says. “The science keeps me going.”