Samaneh Farokhirad

Associate Professor, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
About Me
Dr. Samaneh Farokhirad is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Prior to joining NJIT, she was an NIH Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Penn Institute for computational science at University of Pennsylvania and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Computational Multiphase Flow Dynamics Group at City College of New York (CCNY). She received her Ph.D. and M.Phil. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from CCNY, and B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.

Her research focus is in the areas of fluid mechanics and soft matter physics. Her research group will employ novel computational and theoretical models to explore the dynamics and transport of soft materials at surfaces and interfaces. Dr. Farokhirad has been funded by National Science Foundation and Oracle, and she serves on the editorial board of Computational Physiology and Medicine, Frontiers in Physiology & Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.
Education
Ph.D.; City College of New York; Mechanical Engineering; 2015
M.Phil.; City College of New York; Mechanical Engineering; 2013
M.S.; Iran University of Science and Technology; Mechanical Engineering; 2009
B.S.; Sharif University of Technology; Mechanical Engineering; 2006
Experience
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Associate Professor , 2026 -
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Center for Applied Mathematics and Statistics Affiliated Faculty, 2021 -
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Assistant Professor , 2019 -
University of Pennsylvania
Postdoctoral Research Associate, May 2016 - August 2019
City College of New York
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, January 2016 - May 2016
University of Wisconsin-Madison (Simulation-Based Engineering Laboratory)
Visiting Scholar, July 2010 - August 2010
Awards & Honors
2025 DOE’s Director’s Discretionary Allocation Award at Argonne National Laboratory, DOE
2023 Oracle for Research Project Award, Oracle
2021 Early Career Reviewer at the NIH Center for Scientific Review,
Website
https://farokhirad.com
2026 Fall Courses
ME 490 - MECH ENGR PROJECT A
ME 622 - FINITE ELEM METHDS IN ME
ME 725 - INDEPENDENT STUDY I
ME 700B - MASTER'S PROJECT
ME 701C - MASTER'S THESIS
ME 701B - MASTER'S THESIS
ME 790A - DOC DISSERTATION & RES
ME 792B - PRE-DOCTORAL RESEARCH
ME 491 - MECH ENGR PROJECT B
ME 726 - INDEPENDENT STUDY II
Past Courses
ME 304: FLUID MECHANICS
ME 407: HEAT TRANSFER
ME 618: SELECTED TOPICS IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
ME 618: ST: NUMERICAL FLUID MECHANICS
ME 622: FINITE ELEMENT METHODS IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Research Interests
Theory and Simulation of Soft Biological Materials
Computational Physical Biology
Membrane and Polymer Biophysics
Colloid and Interface Science
Journal Article
Rubayet Hassan, Anh Vo, Samaneh Farokhirad, Fatemeh Ahmadpoor. 2026. "Emergent Surface Tension in Active Membranes Under Area Constraint." Journal of Applied Mechanics , vol. 93, no. 9, pp. 091011.
SM Abdullah Al Mamun, Samaneh Farokhirad. 2026. "Collision dynamics and deformation behaviors of multi-core compound droplet pairs in confined shear flow." Physics of Fluids, vol. 38, pp. 082103.
SM Abdullah Al Mamun, Samaneh Farokhirad. 2025. "ConvNet-based prediction of droplet collision dynamics in microchannels." Physics of Fluids, vol. 37, pp. 013350.
Morteza Hamzeh, Saba Mirahsani, Fatemeh Ahmadpoor, Samaneh Farokhirad. 2025. "From Single Ligand–Receptor Bond Strength to Collective Avidity: Mechanics-Guided Superselective Nanoparticle Adhesion to Biological Membranes." Langmuir, vol. 41, no. 51, pp. 34210–34226.
Md Sojib Kaisar, Rubayet Hassan, Samaneh Farokhirad, Fatemeh Ahmadpoor. 2025. "Renormalization of mechanical properties in fluctuating active membranes.." Journal of Applied Mechanics.
Md Sojib Kaisar, Rubayet Hassan, Samaneh Farokhirad, Fatemeh Ahmadpoor. 2025. "Entropy-Driven Mechanics of Crystalline and Biological Membranes.." Applied Mechanics Reviews.
Conference Abstract
"Adhesive Interactions of Flexible Nanofilaments Versus Nanogels with Biological Cell Membranes"
AICHE.
"Enhancing Nanocarrier Targeting: Role of Cell Morphology, Mechanics, and Receptor-Ligand Interactions"
AICHE.
"Hydrodynamic Behavior of Droplet Pair Collision in Confined Shear Flow, and the Role of Physical and Geometric Parameters"
APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, September, 2023.
"Impact of interfacial adsorption of nanoparticles on transport properties of two-phase flow in porous media"
APS March Meeting, March, 2023.
"Effect of critical geometric and physical parameters on the coalescence dynamics of droplet pairs in confined shear flows"
American Institute of Chemical Engineers,, November, 2022.
"Interplay between membrane and nanoparticle mechanical properties during cellular targeting and uptake of flexible nanoparticles"
APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, 2021.
Chapter
Ravi Radhakrishnan, Samaneh Farokhirad, David M Eckmann, Portonovo S Ayyaswamy. "Nanoparticle transport phenomena in confined flows." pp. 55-129. Elsevier, 2019.
Samaneh Farokhirad, R P Bradley, A Sarkar, A Shih, S Telesco, Y Liu, R Venkatramani, D M Eckmann, P S Ayyaswamy, R Radhakrishnan. "Computational methods related to molecular structure and reaction chemistry of biomaterials." In P. Ducheyne, K.E. Healy, D.W. Hutmacher, D.W. Grainger, C.J. Kirkpatrick, eds., pp. 245-267. Elsevier, 2017.
Professional
NSF-CBET Program
Reviewer, Grant Proposal, 2023
NIH Grant Reviewer, Study Section - Bioengineering Sciences & Technology (ZRG1 BST-M80)
Reviewer, Grant Proposal, 2022
NSF-Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Program
Reviewer, Grant Proposal, 2020