Sandra M. Faber | |
|---|---|
 Sandra Faber accepting theNational Medal of Science from PresidentBarack Obama in 2013 | |
| Born | Sandra Moore (1944-12-28)December 28, 1944 (age 80) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Swarthmore College Harvard University |
| Known for | Faber–Jackson relation, Designing theKeck Observatory |
| Awards | Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics(1985) National Medal of Science(2011) Bruce Medal(2012) Gruber Prize in Cosmology(2017) Magellanic Premium(2018) Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society(2020) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | University of California, Santa Cruz Lick Observatory |
| Thesis | Photometry of elliptical galaxies in multiple systems (1971) |
| Doctoral advisor | I. John Danziger |
| Doctoral students | |
Sandra Moore Faber (born December 28, 1944) is an American astrophysicist known for her research on theevolution of galaxies. She is theUniversity Professor ofAstronomy andAstrophysics at theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz, and works at theLick Observatory. She has made discoveries linking the brightness of galaxies to the speed of stars within them and was the co-discoverer of theFaber–Jackson relation. Faber was also instrumental in designing theKeck telescopes in Hawaii.
Faber studied atSwarthmore College, majoring inphysics and minoring inmathematics andastronomy. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1966. She then earned herPhD in 1972 fromHarvard University, specializing in Optical Observational Astronomy under the direction of I. John Danziger.[1][2] During this time the only observatory open to her was theKitt Peak National Observatory, which had inadequate technology for the complexity of her thesis.
Faber married Andrew Leigh Faber, a fellow Swarthmore physics major one year her junior, on June 9, 1967. They have two daughters, Robin and Holly.[3]
In 1972, Faber joined the faculty of theLick Observatory atUniversity of California, Santa Cruz, becoming the first woman on staff.[1] In 1976, Faber observed the relationship between the brightness and spectra of galaxies and the orbital speeds and motions of the stars within them. The law that resulted would become known as theFaber–Jackson relation, after herself and the co-author, graduate studentRobert Jackson.[4][5]
Three years later, Faber and collaboratorJohn S. Gallagher published a paper collecting all of the evidence for the existence ofdark matter that had been published at that point. In 1983, she published original research showing that dark matter was not composed of fast-movingneutrinos ("hot dark matter") and that instead, it was likely composed of slow-moving particles yet to be discovered ("cold dark matter").[4][5]
Around 1984, Faber collaborated withJoel Primack,George R. Blumenthal, andMartin Rees to elucidate their theory of how dark matter was part ofgalaxy formation and evolution.[6] This was the first proposal of how galaxies have formed and evolved from theBig Bang to today. While some details have been proven wrong, the paper still stands as the current working paradigm for structure information in the universe. She and her collaborators discovered high-speed galaxy flows.[1]
In 1985, Faber was involved with the construction of theKeck Telescope and building the first wide-field planetary camera for theHubble Space Telescope.UC Berkeley physicistJerry Nelson designed the Keck telescope, but Faber helped to sell the idea of large optical telescopes all over the world. The Keck telescope is the second largest optical telescope in the world, with a 10-meter primary mirror of a novel type that consists of 36 hexagonal segments.Sandra Faber co-chaired the Science Steering Committee, which oversaw the first-light instrument for Keck I. She also continued to insist on high optical quality for the primary mirror of the Keck I, and went on to work on the Keck II as well.[7]
During the later 1980s, Faber got involved in an eight-year project called the "Seven Samurai" collaboration, which attempted to catalogue the size and orbital speeds of 400 galaxies. Though this goal was not met, the group developed a way to estimate the distance to any galaxy, which became one of the most reliable ways to measure the total density of the universe.[5]: 23, 69
In 1990, she assisted with the on-orbit commissioning of the wide field planetary camera for the Hubble Space Telescope. She says this was one of the most exhilarating and well-known phases of her career. The optics of the Hubble were flawed, and Faber and her team helped to diagnose the cause asspherical aberration.[8] In 1995, Faber was appointed University Professor at UCSC.[1]
Faber was also the principal investigator of theNuker Team, which used the Hubble Space Telescope to search forsupermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies.[1] One of her most recent works include the addition of a new optical spectrograph for the Keck II telescope, which saw its first light in 1996. The new addition would increase the Keck II's power for observing far-away galaxies by 13-fold. She has also joined up with other scientists to create the CANDELS project, which is the largest survey of the universe taken by the Hubble Telescope.[9]
At UCSC she focuses her research on the evolution of structure in the universe and the evolution and formation of galaxies. In addition to this, she led the development of the DEIMOS instrument on theKeck telescopes to obtain spectra of cosmologically distant galaxies. On August 1, 2012 she became the Interim Director of theUniversity of California Observatories.[1]
Sandra Faber was a co-editor of theAnnual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics withEwine van Dishoeck from 2012 to 2021.[10][11][12] She co-chairs the Board of Directors ofAnnual Reviews.[13]
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