UCSC astronomer Sandra Faber receives National Medal of Science
January 8, 2013 •
The White House announced on Dec. 21 that UC Santa Cruz Professor Sandra Faber is one of a dozen researchers selected by President Obama to receive the National Medal of Science.
Faber, professor of astronomy and astrophysics and interim director of UC Observatories, will receive the award from the president at a White House ceremony in early 2013.
President Obama also named 11 recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The two awards are considered the highest honors bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists, engineers and inventors.
An award-winning observational astronomer with research interests in cosmology and galaxy formation, Faber has made important contributions to scientific progress in understanding the history and structure of the universe.
She has coauthored nearly 250 scientific papers, and her work has been cited over 37,000 times. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society, Faber has received many awards and honors for her achievements. These include the Franklin Institute’s 2009 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science and two awards in 2012 for lifetime scientific achievement, the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Russell Prize of the American Astronomical Society.
Faber currently leads the CANDELS project, the largest project in the history of the Hubble Space Telescope, to extend our view of galaxy formation back nearly to the Big Bang.
“Receiving the National Medal of Science is the thrill of a lifetime, but good science does not happen in isolation,” Faber said. “Let me take this moment to express my gratitude to the University of California Observatories and UC Santa Cruz for providing both world-class telescopes and superb collaborators, without which the discoveries I’ve made would never have happened.”
For more details, follow these links:
>>UCSC news release announcing the award
>>White House news release announcing the awards
>>Professor Faber’s departmental home page
