Nikta Fakhri

Nikta Fakhri is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she specializes in the physics of living systems. She holds the title of Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Career Development Associate Professor and has been part of MIT's faculty since January 2015, initially as an Assistant Professor before her promotion in June 2020.12

Educational Background and Early Career

Fakhri completed her undergraduate studies at Sharif University of Technology in Iran. She then earned her PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Rice University, graduating in 2010. Following her doctoral studies, she served as a postdoctoral research fellow at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in Germany from 2010 to 2014.12

Research Interests

Fakhri's research focuses on active matter, which includes both biological and synthetic systems that consume energy to generate motion. Her work explores non-equilibrium materials composed of many interacting parts, investigating phenomena such as anomalous fluctuations, non-equilibrium phase transitions, and pattern formation on mesoscopic scales. Her group aims to decode the mechanisms behind active living matter and to develop functional active materials by combining concepts from physics, biology, and engineering.2

She has notably pioneered the use of fluorescent single-walled carbon nanotubes as probes in soft matter and biophysics, which has led to significant advancements in understanding intracellular dynamics.23

Awards and Honors

Fakhri has received several prestigious awards throughout her career, including:

• IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Biological Physics (2018) for her contributions to understanding thermodynamic principles in biological systems.
• NSF CAREER Award (2019) recognizing her commitment to research and education.
• Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research (2022) for her innovative work in probing biological systems as emergent non-equilibrium systems.2

Key Publications

Her research has resulted in numerous influential publications, including:

• "High resolution mapping of intracellular fluctuations using carbon nanotubes" (Science, 2014)
• "Broken detailed balance at mesoscopic scales in active biological systems" (Science, 2016)
• "Quantifying dissipation using fluctuating currents" (Nature Communications, 2019) .3

Fakhri's work continues to contribute significantly to the fields of biophysics and active matter physics, with implications for both theoretical understanding and practical applications in materials science.