Michelle Sander
German and American optical engineer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michelle Yen-Ling Sander is a German and American optical engineer whose research involves lasers and fiber optics for ultrafast photothermal spectroscopy, and studying the effects of ultrafast light pulses on matter.[1] She is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University, with secondary appointments in biomedical engineering and materials science engineering.[2]
Early life and education
Sander grew up in Germany,[1], and has been fascinated by light since she was a child.[3] She came to the US as a Fulbright Scholar,[1] and received a master's degree from Georgia Tech in 2004, before finishing a diploma at TU Braunschweig in Germany in 2006.[4]
She defended her Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012.[2] Her dissertation, High repetition rate fiber and integrated waveguide femtosecond lasers, was jointly supervised by Erich P. Ippen and Franz X. Kärtner.[4]
Recognition
Sander was named by Optica as an Optica Ambassador in 2017, as a Senior Member in 2019, and as a Fellow in 2025;[3] her Fellow award cited her "seminal contributions to ultrafast fiber lasers and their applications in imaging, material characterization, and modulation".[5]
She was a 2025 recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.[5]