Andrea Ghez wins Crafoord Prize in Astronomy

The 2012 Crafoord Prizes in Astronomy and Mathematics were announced this morning.

Crafoord Prize 2012 Announcement

In Astronomy, Prof. Andrea Ghez, UCLA won for her patient and groundbreaking work on stellar dynamics in the core of the Milky Way and the robust mass measurement of the central black hole. Dr Genzel, MPIE, shared the prize for independent research on the same problem.

Stellar Orbits Around the Central Black Hole in the Milky Way (from Ghez et al)

Andrea's DeWolf lecture at ACP in 2010 (full 1 hour video from GrassRootsTV)

The Crafoord Prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy, is often considered the Nobel Prize of Astronomy and Mathematics, Alfred himself having sadly neglected to endow those field, though astrophysics not infrequently takes the Physics Prize.

In Mathematics, the Prize was shared by Bourgain (IAS) and Tao (UCLA).

Older webcast from UCLA Faculty Research Lecture series