This cache is part of an occasional series about Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The cache is not located at the posted coordinates, it can be found after you solve the puzzle at N 45° AB.CDE' W 122° FG.HIJ'.
Andrea Ghez was born in New York City, grew up in Chicago, earned her bachelor’s degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and her PhD from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She is currently on the faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her research explores the center of the Milky Way galaxy, specifically Sagittarius A* (pronounced Sagitarrius A star). She shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics with Reinhard Genzel (a German scientist who directs the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and is also a professor at the University of California, Berkeley) “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.”
Science is nearly always a collaborative activity, and occasionally a competitive one. Reinhard Genzel led a team that used telescopes operated by the European Southern Observatory in the Chilean desert. Andrea Ghez led a team that used the W.M. Keck’s telescopes at the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea. Both teams had to develop new techniques (“adaptive optics”) to visualize Sagittarius A*, both teams tracked the motion of about 100 stars near Sagitarius A* that moved incredibly fast, both teams published numerous scholarly papers. As Andrea Ghez said, “There’s nothing like competition to keep you going, to propel you forward and to get it right.” Using different techniques and telescopes, both teams reached similar conclusions which added credibility to their findings. Reinhard Genzel was quoted as saying, “I tried to convince Andrea that we should go from a competitive stance….to a collaborative stance. We have exchanged wonderful e-mails today [the day the Nobel Prize was announced] and will have a COVID-distance champagne event together in the next few days.”
Note: for all checksums in this puzzle, continue calculating until you have a single digit number.
Andrea Ghez won the Sackler International Prize in the Physical Sciences which is awarded by Tel Aviv University for young scientists who have made outstanding and fundamental contributions in their fields. Let A = the average of the non-zero digits in the year Andrea Ghez earned this prize “for her pioneering high-resolution infrared observations that provide evidence for, and establish the mass of, the supermassive blackhole in the center of the galaxy.”
Andrea Ghez won the Annie Jump Cannon Award from the American Astronomical Society which is awarded to a woman resident of North America who is within 5 years of earing a PhD. Let B = the last digit minus the first digit of the year Andrea Ghez won this award.
Let C = the last digit of the year Discover magazine identified her as one of 20 Young Scientists to Watch (Jennifer Doudna and Vicki Colvin, whose names may be familiar, were also on this list which included 9 women and 11 men)
Andrea Ghez was the first woman to win the Crafoord Prize. The Crafoord Prize is an annual science prize awarded in partnership between the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Crafoord Foundation in Lund. It is awarded in four categories: astronomy and mathematics; geosciences; biosciences, with particular emphasis on ecology; and polyarthritis. One award is given per year, rotating among the first three categories; a prize in polyarthritis is awarded only when substantial progress in the field has been made. Let D = the checksum of year Andrea Ghez won this prize, which she shared with Reinhard Genzel, “for their observations of the start orbiting the galactic centre, indicating the presence of a supermassive black hole.”
Andrea Ghez earned a MacArthur Fellowship (aka “genius grant”) which is an award from the John D. and Catherin T. MacArthur Foundation to about 20-30 people who are US citizens or residents working in any field who have shown “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.” Let E = the last digit minus the first digit of the year Andrea Ghez won this award.
The Royal Society is the United Kingdom’s Academy of Sciences. The Bakerian Medal is one of the Royal Society’s premier medals and recognizes exceptional and outstanding science. Let F = the last digit of the year that Andrea Ghez won this award and gave a lecture titled, “The monster at the heart of our galaxy.”
Let G = the checksum of the year Andrea Ghez won the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award of American Physical Society which is awarded in recognition of an outstanding contribution to physics research by a woman. This award is named for the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics which she earned with J. Hans D. Jensen “for their discovery of the nuclear shell structure.”
Let H = the checksum of the number of years between the year Andrea Ghez won the Nobel Prize and the most recent year that another woman won this prize.
Let I = the total number of women who have won the Nobel Prize in Physics (through 2020), including Andrea Ghez.
Andrea Ghez won the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy which is awarded to a young astronomer for outstanding achievement in observational astronomical research. Let J = the last digit of the year she won this prize minus twice the first digit in the year she won this prize.
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