Professor @MIT_Physics @MIT
Cambridge, MA
Joined November 2015
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We made the cover of PRX!!
Our work on nonreciprocal living matter is on the cover of @PhysRevX!
Very proud of this work and this amazing team!
journals.aps.org/prx/abstrac…
Cover credit: APS/Ella Maru
At the @theNASEM Fall Meeting of the Board on Physics! Honored & excited to have been elected to the Board!
An inspiring first day hearing about frontiers in physics & perspectives from federal agencies and foundations.
I am looking forward to tomorrow’s discussions & to being part of the conversation about the future of physics.
nationalacademies.org/units/…
What an honor! So grateful to my wonderful group members (alumni & current) @MIT, colleagues & mentors who have been part of my scientific journey.
I am thrilled to be named an @APSphysics Fellow!
🎉 Congratulations to the 2026 APS Fellows! DSNP extends its heartfelt congratulations to the newly elected Fellows of the @APSphysics recognized for outstanding contributions to physics, original research and exceptional service to the cause of science. #APS #Physics #DSNP
Nikta Fakhri retweeted
A new framework maps the collective movement of starfish embryos as topological “flowscapes,” revealing circulating flows, irreversible pathways, and structural transitions that emerge as they self-organize.
Read more in @physrevx: go.aps.org/4r3NH71
ALT Microscopy video of starfish embryos moving in coordinated, swirling patterns, with red and blue arrows overlaid to show the direction of movement.
Nikta Fakhri retweeted
By applying dynamic topological landscapes to a mixture of starfish embryos, scientists developed a flowstate framework that quantifies how nonreciprocal transitions sculpt the architecture of active and living matter.
Read more: go.aps.org/4r3NH71
ALT A video showing a binary mixture of starfish embryos moving about under a microscope, with overlaid arrows denoting their two-minute trajectories. E1 embryos are colored blue and E2 embryos are colored red.
Nikta Fakhri retweeted
A coordinated flock doesn't always stay coordinated.
When two groups follow conflicting rules — one aligning, the other antialigning — the flock can spontaneously rotate. But beyond a certain size, that coherent motion breaks down into chaos.
Read more: go.aps.org/4hf71Lc
ALT Two-panel figure. The first is a swirling red-and-blue pattern showing chaotic motion in a simulated two-species flocking model. The second, a microscope image of starfish embryos with blue and red arrows indicating the differing movement directions of young versus old embryos.
Very excited to see our work out today in @PhysRevX with a wonderful feature in @PhysicsMagazine!
Using starfish embryos, we uncover how nonreciprocal interactions reshape collective states, from crystals to flocking to fragmentation.
We introduce topological flowscapes to capture not just the landscape of collective states, but the dynamics of transitions between them.
And the part I am excited about is that the flowscapes reveal an informational rate shift and emergent proofreading at the experimental state transition.
A step toward a question we are fascinated by: how information, irreversibility & nonreciprocity can shape the dynamics & thermodynamics of living collectives.
Congrats to all the amazing coauthors.
journals.aps.org/prx/abstrac…
physics.aps.org/articles/v19…
ALIVE is alive!
Very excited to launch the Center for Active Living Matter: Information, Vitality & Emergence, with support from the @novonordiskfond.
Our ambition: to uncover the physical principles of multicellularity, from origins to health and disease.
From the arrow of time to the arrow of life. w/ Amin Doostmohammadi
@PhysOfLifeLMU @XavierTrepat – at Copenhagen, Denmark
Happy to share a new paper in @PhysRevLett with the “Odd” team!
We find that geometry can pattern activity, open spectral gaps & reshape exceptional points…. Excited to put these ideas to the test in living multicellular collectives (my current obsession!) & active metamaterials!
With Piotr Surówka @CorentinCoulais @jackbinysh et al.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=GJJTn0…
journals.aps.org/prl/abstrac…
Thrilled that ALIVE: Center for Active Living Matter – Information, Vitality, and Emergence has received a @novonordiskfond Challenge Programme grant. Excited to continue our work on the thermodynamic arrow of time & information to understand emergence of multicellularity, from evolutionary origins to disease. Looking forward to this exciting collaboration with Amin Doostmohammadi @XavierTrepat @PhysOfLifeLMU.
Nine new Challenge Programme grants from the Novo Nordisk Foundation will support ambitious research across fungal diseases, cardiometabolic disease, soil health and non-equilibrium biological systems. With a European expansion, the 2026 awards unite strong research groups and diverse expertise across Europe in the pursuit of novel knowledge addressing major scientific challenges.
Read more about the 2026 recipients: novonordiskfonden.dk/en/news…
Nikta Fakhri retweeted
Science is Curiosity on a Mission: It includes all of us who ask "why" and make it our mission to find out. These are the discoveries that move the country forward. The pursuit of ideas that seemed impossible until they weren’t. #CuriosityOnAMission
Nikta Fakhri retweeted
“Curiosity is the force that transforms deadly cancers into treatable conditions… that turns fusion energy from a dream to a reality…that uncovers new ways to grow more food using less of every resource,” says MIT President Sally Kornbluth. #CuriosityOnAMission
Congratulations to Dr @yuchenchaoXD , my wonderful graduate student from @Harvard Applied Physics, who successfully defended today.
And of course, wowed everyone!
She will stay @MIT for a short postdoc before moving to @UChicago …
Very proud!!
Nikta Fakhri retweeted
What happens when marine embryos are crowded instead of isolated?
They become materials.
Honored to write a @NaturePhysics News & Views on excitable living solids discovered by @FakhriLab and colleagues at @MIT 😀
N&V: rdcu.be/e5gLm
Paper: nature.com/articles/s41567-0…
The saga of Living Chiral Crystals continues…
Excited to share our new @NaturePhysics paper ON Living Chiral Crystals 2.0!
nature.com/articles/s41567-0…
We show that living solids made of starfish embryos can self-organize into nonequilibrium states that generate mechanical work.
These active crystals break reciprocity and exhibit emergent modes impossible in equilibrium.
Amazing work by my group members, in collaboration with Jörn Dunkel's group @ScienceMIT.
rdcu.be/e15vd
Check out this great News & Views article by @Viveknprakash:
nature.com/articles/s41567-0…
I’m excited to share that I’ve been promoted to Full Professor of Physics at @MIT.
This milestone feels especially meaningful: I am the first Iranian woman to hold this position in physics at MIT. I carry my heritage with pride, especially in moments like this.
I’m deeply grateful to my students, postdocs, colleagues and mentors. This achievement reflects the community that challenges me, supports me, and elevates the work every day. The work continues: ambitious questions, curiosity-driven science and much still to discover.
Onward… to the questions we haven’t yet imagined!
Picture: latest Fakhri group meeting
Congratulations to my colleague, Mehran Kardar, who is the recipient of 2026 Lars Onsager Prize for his groundbreaking contributions to statistical physics.
@MIT @ScienceMIT @APSphysics
Congratulations to our spring 2026 prizes and awards recipients. The winners were chosen by a panel of their peers for their outstanding contributions in #research, #education, and #PublicService.
Learn more about their award-winning work: tinyurl.com/4hnvndz8
ALT A dark blue background with pink and lighter blue ribbons through the center. The American Physical Society Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research is at the top with white text underneath that reads “Spring 2026 — APS Prizes and Awards.”
Life moves forward — never backward. Living systems consume energy, breaking time’s symmetry and staying far from equilibrium. That’s the hidden physics behind every heartbeat, every cell in motion, every act of becoming. @TEDxNewEngland
youtube.com/watch?v=AZ1Nyl7V…