Presidential Honors
by A.J. Kleber
Professor Michelle Sander is the recipient of one of 2025’s Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the United States government’s highest honor for researchers early in their careers. Established in 1996, the PECASE awards recognize such early-career researchers “who show exceptional potential for leadership.” Anyone who knows Professor Sander knows how well that description fits.
In a little over a decade, Sander’s Ultrafast Optics Laboratory has proven to be a vital, collaborative community of researchers at every educational level; indeed, Sander has referred to her team as a “research family,” emphasizing the importance of communication, discussion, and openness to different perspectives and new ideas. That community-minded approach stretches beyond one department, institution, or country to a network of partnerships spanning disciplines, as well. In addition to her dedication towards mentoring up-and-coming generations of engineers, Sander’s research philosophy embodies BU Engineering’s convergent values.
Sander’s research is focused on developing ultrafast lasers (as in, on a femtosecond scale), photothermal light-matter interactions for imaging and modulation, and other explorations on the frontiers of physics and photonics. Her team also puts an emphasis on pursuing practical applications of these cutting-edge technologies. Much of her work crosses over into biomedical and materials science domains; some recent projects include the creation of novel photothermal microscopes for label-free, high-resolution cellular imaging and studying heat transfer dynamics, and pursuing techniques for the use of fiber lasers to study and manipulate neurons. A study of axons (essentially, the transmitting antennae of neurons) with time-resolved photothermal mid-infrared microscopic imaging was featured on the cover of Analytical Chemistry Vol. 95, Issue 45, last year.
Professor Michelle Sander earned her PhD at MIT. Some of her accolades include a 2019 NSF CAREER Award, 2017 AFOSR Young Investigator Award, and 2014, 2017 and 2018 BU College of Engineering Dean’s Catalyst Awards. She is a Senior Member of IEEE, Optica, and SPIE, and served as an Optica Ambassador in 2017. She joined the BU ECE faculty in 2013.