Michael D Fayer received his PhD in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, USA. He has been teaching at Stanford University since 1974 and is currently the David Mulvane Ehrsam and Edward Curtis Franklin Professor of Chemistry. 

Fayer is a pioneer in the development and application of ultrafast non-linear laser techniques for the study of complex molecular systems ranging from solids at liquid helium temperatures to room temperature molecular materials with mesoscopic structures. In the last several decades, his main focus has been on the molecular dynamics studied with ultrafast infrared non-linear experiments. He has played a central role in the development and application of two dimensional infrared spectroscopy. His work has had profound impacts on modern physical chemistry and materials science, and his methods have spread worldwide.

He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received the Ellis R. Lippincott Award, the Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry, the Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award, the Earl K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy, the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science, the E. Bright Wilson Award for Spectroscopy, and the Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science and Technology. In 2022, he received the William F. Meggers Award "for seminal developments in ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy, which have heavily influenced the chemical physics spectroscopy landscape."