Michelle Sander Elected to IEEE Photonics Society’s Board of Governors
Assistant Professor Michelle Sander was elected to a three-year term serving on the Board of Governors for the IEEE Photonics Society. She will join the Board in 2020 together with three other new worldwide-elected members. The IEEE Photonics Society is a section of the IEEE that is focused on optical technologies that range from quantum physics, fiber optics, and lasers to solar energy and biomedical applications of light. “I feel honored to have been chosen for this position as a fairly junior professor,” said Sander. Together with her fellow board members, she hopes to create a dynamic force to tackle their field’s most critical issues and create a new vision for society.
This achievement is one of many in her young career. With a focus on fiber optics and ultrafast lasers within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Sander has also received an AFOSR Young Investigator Award, an NSF CAREER Award and a College of Engineering Dean’s Catalyst Award. She has also served as an Ambassador for the Optical Society in 2017. Her research interests include femtosecond lasers, novel fiber optics, photothermal light interactions that are applied to infrared spectroscopy and imaging as well as infrared nerve stimulation. Overall, she has built an interdisciplinary research program expanding beyond traditional areas of electrical engineering. Collectively with another BU faculty member, she received a $2.7 million grant from the NIH BRAIN Initiative to design a novel fiber laser system to capture neuronal activity faster and with higher precision than previous methods. These awards and honors confirm that Sander is on a trajectory to future outstanding accomplishments as a member of the IEEE Photonics Society and the BU research community.