Sarah L. Keller (she/her)

Prof. Keller is a biophysicist who investigates self-assembling soft condensed matter systems. Her group’s primary research focus concerns how lipid mixtures within bilayer membranes give rise to complex phase behavior, and how this behavior is manifested in biological membranes. She joined the UW faculty after earning her Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University and completing postdoctoral research as a Presidential Fellow at UC Santa Barbara and as an NIH NRSA Fellow at Stanford University.

Prof. Keller has been recognized for her research, mentoring, and teaching. She is a Fellow of the Biophysical Society and has been honored with the Biophysical Society's Avanti Award, the Tom Thompson Award, and the Dayhoff Award. She is a Cottrell Scholar and a STAR Awardee. She has been granted a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences, and named a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Her mentoring of early-career researchers has been recognized by the UW Postdoctoral Association’s Mentor Award and Honorable Mention for the UW Graduate Mentor Award. Her teaching has been recognized by a UW Distinguished Teaching Award.

Graduate students who work with Prof. Keller have won awards nationally (e.g., NSF Graduate Research Fellowships and the Anna Louise Hoffman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Research) and internationally (e.g., Student Research Achievement Awards from the Biophysical Society and Lindau Fellowships). After graduating, they pursue a wide range of careers in industry, academia, and national labs. Prof. Keller's mentoring resources are available through the Keller Lab's website.