Michael Raymer began his career as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester in 1979. He moved to Oregon in 1988 to help start a new program in optics, which he helped develop into the Oregon Center for Optics, for which he served as founding Director. He is Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon, a title that indicates his broad interests in science research and education. He has had visiting positions in Norway, Germany and JILA (University of Colorado), and has enjoyed contributing to summer schools in Sweden, Denmark, and Brazil. During the past six years, he developed a new university course called The Physics Behind the Internet, in which he teaches non-science students about the physics and engineering that go into making computers and the Internet. His research interests are quantum and nonlinear optics and laser physics. He holds a patent on linear optical sampling, a technique for characterizing ultrafast laser pulses. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and of the American Physical Society (APS).

He serves as a member of the Editorial Boards of Physical Review Letters and Journal of Modern Optics, and served as a Topical Editor of the Journal of the Optical Society of America B. He has served on OSA awards committees, as a member of the Charles Townes Award Committee, and as Chair of the Frederick Ives Medal Committee. He served as co-Chair of the Program Committee for the International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) 2004, and as Co-General Chair of the Quantum Electronics and Lasers Conference (QELS) 2006. He also served on the Executive Committee of the APS Division of Laser Science, and chaired its Distinguished Traveling Lecturers Committee.