Sarah Willis

Dr. Sarah Willis is an assistant leader of the Space Systems Analysis and Test Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Willis joined Lincoln Laboratory in 2015, working on systems analysis for the U.S. Air Force. She focused on the application of infrared systems to issues of air vehicle survivability.

In 2019, she joined the Kwajalein Field Site, where she worked on efforts to modernize and improve the major sensor systems at the Reagan Test Range (RTR) and systems analysis studies to direct the evolution of RTR. Willis has contributed to many STEM education and community outreach activities on Kwajalein, including establishing the on-island Beaver Works Summer Institute Program in 2020. 

Willis holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a PhD degree in astrophysics from Iowa State University. Prior to joining the Laboratory, she was a pre- and post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where she used infrared observations to study how stars form.