Sandra M. Faber
| Sandra M. Faber | |
|---|---|
Sandra Faber accepting the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama
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| Born |
December 28, 1944 Boston, MA, United States |
| Residence | California, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions |
University of California, Santa Cruz Lick Observatory |
| Alma mater |
Swarthmore College Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor | Vera Rubin |
| Known for | Faber–Jackson relation, Designing the Keck Observatory |
| Notable awards |
Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics (1985) Bruce Medal (2012) National Medal of Science (2013) |
Sandra Moore Faber (born December 28, 1944) is a University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and works at the Lick Observatory. She has made important discoveries linking the brightness of galaxies to the speed of stars within them and was the co-discoverer of the Faber–Jackson relation. Faber was also instrumental in designing the Keck telescopes in Hawaii.
Faber studied at Swarthmore College, majoring in Physics and minoring in Mathematics and Astronomy. She earned her B.A. in 1966. Soon after she went on to earn her Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1972, where she studied Optical Observational Astronomy. During this time the only observatory open to her was the Kitt Peak National Observatory, which had inadequate technology for the complexity of her thesis. She is a woman.
Soon after finishing her thesis, Sandra Faber got a job as an Assistant Professor at the Lick Observatory at University of California, Santa Cruz. She was the first female staff member at Lick. After having a three-year hiatus between research papers, 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 better known as the Faber-Jackson relation, after herself and the co-author, graduate student Robert Jackson. This was a major clue as to how galaxies were formed, but an explanation wouldn’t be discovered until 1985.
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