Judy Su
Principal Investigator
Academic Positions
Associate Professor of Optical Sciences
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Associate Professor of BIO5 Institute
Bio
Judith Su is a Craig M. Berge Faculty Fellow and an Associate Professor in Optical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics from Caltech. Her lab develops next-generation optical sensing platforms and applies them in collaboration with leading researchers to address critical challenges in science, medicine, and society.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including an NSF CAREER Award, an NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award, the 2024 ASME Rising Star Award, the American Society of Laser Surgery and Medicine Young Investigator Award, the Journal of Physics Photonics 2023 Early Career Award, and recognition in the 2024 Photonics100 list of the field’s most innovative people. She is also a Fellow of SPIE, has been a Siegman International School on Lasers Lecturer, and was a Scialog: Chemical Machinery of the Cell Fellow. She served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Human Exposome Project, which seeks to define and measure the environmental determinants of human health.
Dr. Su gave a keynote talk at SPIE Photonics West in 2022 and has held leadership roles in major international conferences. She served as the General Co-Chair of Optica’s Advanced Photonics Congress, Integrated Photonics Research (IPR) Conference in Busan, Korea (2023), Quebec City, Canada (2024), and most recently in Marseille, France (2025).
Education
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, 2014
M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, 2004
B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering; Minor: Literature, 2002
Awards/Honors
NIH Quantum Sensing Challenge Prize, Stage 1 team winner. Team Lead: Pri Narang, 2025
SPIE Fellow, 2025
American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) rising star, 2024
NSF CAREER award, CAREER: Bioinspired optical sniffer based on microtoroid resonators and science and technology convergence, 2023
NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award, 2020
Keynote talk at SPIE Photonics West 2022 on “Recent advances in microtoroid optical molecular sensing technology for biomedical and environmental applications”
American Society of Laser Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Horace Furumoto Innovations Professional Young Investigator Award, 2019
Outstanding paper award, Light: Science & Applications, 2018
Participant, 2nd U.S.-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine symposium, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 2024
Optical Society of America’s Siegman International School Lecturer, August 2017
Photonics 100, 2024, Given to the industry’s most innovative people
Journal of Phys Photonics Emerging Leaders Award, 2023
Featured in the 2020 SPIE Women in Optics planner which highlights “women who are making a difference through their work and other contributions to the fields of science, optics, and engineering”.
National Academy of Inventors, Senior Member, 2022
Optical Society of America, Senior Member, 2021
Sigma Xi Member, 2020
Scialog Fellow, Research Corporation & Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, 2018
University of Arizona, Office of the Provost, and Faculty Affairs, Arizona Champion, (this honors 1-2 Arizona champions at a special football game in recognizing their achievements and contributions to the University community), 2023
University of Arizona, University Early Career Innovation & Entrepreneurship Award, 2023
University of Arizona, Inaugural Class, Women of Impact, 2022
University of Arizona, Inaugural Class, Research Leadership Institute, 2022
University of Arizona, College of Engineering, Dean’s Award for Outstanding Early Career Faculty, 2022 (awarded to one for excellence in teaching, research, and service)
NIH Training Grant in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Caltech, 2006–2009
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2002–2005
MIT, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pademakar P. Lele Best Undergraduate Thesis Proposal Award, 2001
Contact Information
Email: judy@optics.arizona.edu