Nikta Fakhri
Principal Investigator
​[email protected]

Photo credit: Steph Stevens

Nikta is an associate Professor in the Department of Physics at MIT and Physics of Living Systems Group. 
​She completed her undergraduate degree at Sharif University of Technology and her PhD at Rice University. She was a Human Frontier Science Program postdoctoral fellow at Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, Germany before joining MIT.
​Nikta is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Physics. She is the recipient of the 2018 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Biological Physics, the 2019 NSF CAREER Award, and the 2022 APS Early Career Award in Soft Matter Research.
Nikta's Q&A with Quanta Magazine:
Starfish Whisperer Develops a Physical Language of Life​​

Google Scholar

Yu-Chen Chao
Graduate Student
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Yu-Chen is a 7th year Applied Physics graduate student interested in understanding and utilizing non-equilibrium properties of living systems. Outside of lab, she enjoys traveling, reading manga, and playing volleyball!

Yuchao Chen
Graduate Student
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Yuchao is a 6th year Physics graduate student interested in exploring the behaviors of active matter in complex environments. Outside of the lab, you can find him mountain biking and feeding bluejays.

Lisa Lin
​​Graduate Student
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Lisa is a 5th year Physics graduate student interested in manipulating and modeling active matter systems. Outside of lab, you can find her knitting, playing the clarinet, or cooking.

Elise Koskelo
Graduate Student
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Elise is a 5th year Physics graduate student interested in topological defects and the emergence of order and dynamics in non-equilibrium systems. Outside of lab, she is an avid runner and fiber artist.

Will Crockett
Graduate Student
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Will is a 3rd year microbiology graduate student and an NSF graduate research fellow. He uses a combination of experimental and theoretical work inspired by active matter to understand how multicellular individuals emerge from collectives of cells, and uses the reaggregation of sea sponges as a model system to do so. In his free time, Will likes to rock climb, go for bike rides, and wander around in nature.

Minseok Lee
Graduate Student
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Minseok is a first-year graduate student studying the modeling of active matter systems through data-driven and statistical approaches, aiming to connect empirical observations with theoretical descriptions of collective behavior. Outside the lab, he enjoys playing tennis.

Hyunseok Lee
​​Postdoc
​[email protected]

Hyunseok studies emergent behaviors of living mixtures through experiment with marine organisms and microbial communities.

John Frank
Research Scientist

John studies ordering on curving surfaces, tree branching, and living solids. In his free time, John enjoys designing information retrieval tools, founding start-ups, and restoring woodland habitats. Check out what he’s been up to recently at his website: https://www.mit.edu/~jrf/

Tom Burkart
Postdoc
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Tom is an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow. He is interested in the emergence of mesoscopic system properties, in particular time-irreversibility, from model parameters in non-equilibrium complex systems using a combination of theory, data analysis, and machine learning. In his free time, Tom enjoys running, swimming, and ballroom dancing.

Tader Shipley
Administrative Assistant
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Tader keeps the Physics of Living Systems group running smoothly. She also assists with biophysics activities across campus. When not assisting PLS, You can also find her performing on theatre stages in and around the Boston area!

Group alumni

PhD students:
Tzer Han Tan (UCSD) 
Yoon Jung (Amazon/Alexa)
James Pelletier (HFSP Madrid)
Alexandru Bacanu (Harvard)
Melis Tekant (Cubist)
Hugh Higinbotham (MIT Biology)
Junang Li (Princeton)
Jinghui Liu (Dresden)
Sebastian Coupe (Stanford)

Physics of Living Systems Postdocs:
Peter Foster (USC)
Alex Solon (CNRS)
​Todd Gingrich (Northwestern Chemistry)
Jordan Horowitz (UMich)
​Shreyas Gokhale
Farzan Vafa (Niels Bohr Institute)

Undergraduates:
Josh Liu (Stanford PhD)