Laura Sanchez, Ph.D. is an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Sanchez’s lab specializes in using and adapting imaging mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry for small molecule analyses in complex systems. Sanchez was a K12 BIRCWH Scholar (2016-2017), a program that supported the translation of the techniques to women's health. She was the Rising Star in the Life Sciences in 2019 at UIC, the 2022 American Society for Pharmacognosy Matt Suffness Young Investigator Awardee and the 2022 ACS Infectious Diseases/ACS Division of Biological Chemistry Young Investigator Awardee. Sanchez is a member of the ASM Subcommittee on Minority Education (SME).