Carnegie Trustee and Astronomer Sandra Faber To Receive Magellanic Premium Medal

Former Carnegie fellow and current trustee Sandy Faber has been selected to receive the 2018 American Philosophical Society’s Magellanic Premium Medal.  The medal is the nation’s oldest for scientific achievement. It was established in 1786. It is awarded from time to time “ to the author of the best discovery or most useful invention related to navigation, astronomy, or natural philosophy…”

Dr. Faber is the University of California, Santa Cruz, University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and has been a Carnegie trustee since 1985.  After receiving a B.A. in physics from Swarthmore College, she pursued her Ph.D. in astronomy at Harvard, which she received in 1972. Much of her dissertation work was conducted at the Carnegie's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in Washington, D.C.

Faber’s pioneering research on the formation and evolution of galaxies, the evolution of structure in the universe, and concepts such as the “Great Attractor,” and “cold dark matter” has gained her world acclaim. She is also a leading authority on telescopes and astronomical instrumentation and has received many awards and accolades.