Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Speaks to Scout Troop 223G

By MEREDITH CORBIN | Contributing Writer

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Andrea Ghez recently spoke to Palisades Scout Troop 223G at St. Matthew’s Church.

Ghez is an astrophysicist and professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA. In 2020, she became the fourth woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, and when she visited Troop 223G, as Fox Patrol Leader, I had the chance to interview Ghez.

In the interview, Ghez explained how she won the prize due to her work discovering a super massive black hole in the middle of our universe.

“A black hole is a region of space where the pull of gravity is so intense that nothing can escape it, not even light, so we can’t see it directly,” Ghez said.

Ghez shared some facts about her work, such as working with the Keck Telescope in Hawaii on the big island and that her favorite star is So2.

One of the questions was what was her favorite flavored Pop-Tart, because on the cold and late nights, she would eat a lot of quick food due to always being on the go and having little time to eat an entire meal. One of her favorite snacks was a blueberry Pop-Tart.

Ghez discussed her inspirations toward the path of growing as an astrophysicist due to her love of numbers and science early on in school. Ghez explained that physics has great potential as a field of study because there is so much room for discovery.

Ghez also spoke of science and math as a mainly male-dominated field. This made her the ideal inspirational speaker to talk to our troop of almost 70 girls in scouting and their parents, given that it was only recently the Boy Scouts of America became The Scouts of America.

When asked how she felt when she won the Nobel Prize, Ghez said: “I took it with a grain of salt. There are so many people doing good work who go unnoticed, and the Nobel Prize tends to like splashy discoveries.”