Sandra Faber

Sandra Moore Faber (born December 28, 1944) is an American astrophysicist known for her research on the evolution of galaxies. She is the University Professor emerita of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and works at the Lick Observatory. She has made 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.

Early life and education Faber studied at Swarthmore College, majoring in physics and minoring in mathematics and astronomy. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1966. She then earned her PhD in 1972 from Harvard University, specializing in Optical Observational Astronomy under the direction of I. John Danziger. 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.

Personal life 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.

Career and research In 1972, Faber joined the faculty of the Lick Observatory at University of California, Santa Cruz, becoming the first woman on staff. This was the first proposal of how galaxies have formed and evolved from the Big 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.

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.

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 as spherical aberration. In 1995, Faber was appointed University Professor at UCSC.

Sandra Faber was a co-editor of the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics with Ewine van Dishoeck from 2012 to 2021. She co-chairs the Board of Directors of Annual Reviews.

Honors and awards 1977, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship 1978, Bart J. Bok Prize, Harvard University 1985, Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics 1986, Honorary Degree, Swarthmore College 1996-1997, Antoinette de Vaucouleurs Lectureship and Medal, University of Texas 1997, Honorary Degree, Williams College 2005, Medaille de l'Institute d'Astrophysique de Paris 2006, Harvard Centennial Medal 2006, Member, Harvard Board of Overseers 2017, Gruber Prize in Cosmology 2018, Magellanic Premium Medal, American Philosophical Society 2020, Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 2020, Elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society Member, Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institution for Science Minor planet #283277 Faber is named for her.