Nobel Laureate Andrea Ghez gave her Last Lecture on May 14 to an auditorium filled with Bruins, her former students and fellow faculty.

Thousands of Bruins voted for Ghez – who was one of 260 faculty nominees – to be honored with the Marty Sklar My Last Lecture award, said Jamie Cheung, vice president of the Alumni Scholars Club, which hosted the event.

In her lecture, Ghez, the Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics, spoke about her journey discovering her love for science, getting recruited for a position at UCLA in 1994 and ultimately winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2020.

Over 60 years ago, professors at UCLA were given the opportunity to share advice and life lessons with Bruins as if it was their “last lecture” on earth, said George Brown, ASC president. With support from alumnus and Disney Legend Marty Sklar, the tradition returned in 2010 as an annual event, he added.

Ghez, a professor of physics and astronomy, started her lecture by explaining her budding interest in space, sparked by watching the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 when she was 4 years old.

“According to the family legend, I said, ‘I want to be the first woman on the moon,’” Ghez said. “It certainly was the beginning of planting a seed about thinking about the universe.”

That job is still open, Ghez said.

Throughout her speech, Ghez highlighted the importance of uplifting and supporting women in STEM, something she said was important to her personally as only the fourth woman to win a Nobel Prize for Physics and the first woman in any field to win the Crafoord Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious science prizes that was first awarded in 1982. She added that she was often one of a few women in the room throughout her academic journey.

[Related: UCLA professor shares 2020 Nobel Prize in physics for black hole breakthroughs]

Ghez started her undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and found her interest in physics by taking the subject as a foundational requirement during her underclassman years, she said.

“I went through the classic existential crisis: ‘What am I going to be doing now?’,” she said. “I realized that that was the class – the language – that really resonated with me.”

Ghez then attended the California Institute of Technology to work toward her doctorate in physics. She said she was very apprehensive about starting her teaching position there but convinced herself it was important as there were no other women professors at the time.

“I found a purpose that helped me get over that huge fear,” Ghez said. “I did learn how to translate nervousness into excitement.”

Ghez said she has become a natural at teaching because she is excited about what she does.

She said she also encourages college students to challenge themselves to broaden their horizons – potentially by taking classes outside their usual interests – as they might be pleasantly surprised where it leads them.

“Try the things that scare you a little bit,” she said. “That’s the path to finding the passions you don’t have access to yet.”

[Related: Nobel Prize-winning professor pushes to prove every challenge is an opportunity]

A year into her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona, Ghez received a call inviting her to apply for a position at UCLA as a researcher and assistant professor of physics and astronomy, she said, adding that some major draws were the university’s new telescope and the Keck Observatory.

“The answer was immediately, ‘Absolutely,’ because this, to me, is my dream job,” Ghez said. “It was my dream job at the time, and it’s only gotten better.”

In her first proposal at UCLA in 1994, Ghez said she asked the question that led her through three decades of investigation: Is there a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy?

The idea of a supermassive black hole went from a possibility to a certainty – the finding that led to her Nobel Prize. However, she said this was far from the end of her study on them.

“You’ve answered one question and opened up more questions than answers,” she said.

Following her lecture, Ghez stayed behind to speak with attendees. Yvana Mouawad, a first-year computer science and engineering student, said she has looked up to Ghez for years, having watched many of her talks – including her Nobel Prize lecture – online.

“I’ve always wanted to see her talk in person,” Mouawad said. “This was the chance to make that dream come true.”

First-year astrophysics student Sanjana Khanolkar said she has admired Ghez’s work and sees her as an inspiration for women in STEM. She added that getting to hear Ghez’s academic journey reminded her that everyone starts out at the same place – as a student.

“It just depends on how hard you work and how dedicated you are to what you believe in,” Khanolkar said. “That’s what brings you to success and helps you achieve whatever you want.”

Khanolkar also said this event affirmed her decision to attend UCLA because of the availability and access to mentors like Ghez.

Dean of Physical Sciences Miguel García-Garibay said it was fitting for Ghez to be nominated and voted for by students for the Last Lecture award, calling her an exemplary faculty member and a “champion of science.”

Eight UCLA faculty members have been awarded the Nobel Prize. García-Garibay said he has known many of them personally and their unwavering dedication to their students has inspired future generations of scientists and scholars.

“We have faculty who have really reached the highest levels of recognition in science, but they still connect with our students, with the classroom,” he said. “They want to make a difference.”

Ghez said with all the excitement and attention that come with awards like the Nobel Prize, her priority remains working on and promoting science in the years ahead.

“Keep your eye on the prize,” Ghez said. “That means don’t keep your eye on prizes, keep your eye on doing science.”