Posted on March 6, 2026 by Sean M. Wood
Biomedical Engineering Assistant Professor Dr. Marzieh Memar née Hajiaghamemar can accelerate her research into traumatic brain injuries after receiving a $600,000 CAREER Grant from the National Science Foundation.
The NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education.
Memar’s work involves studying how the brain’s structure and mechanics influence the effects of impacts or rapid head movements. “It’s like what we’ve seen in sports or car crashes,” she said. “We build detailed 3D computer models of human and animal brains to see how different brains respond to TBIs and uncover shared injury rules across species. The goal is to make animal studies more relevant to humans and hopefully reduce the need for new animal testing.”
The chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering Dr. Nehal Abu-Lail said the NSF grant is a testament to the quality of Memar’s research and education in biomechanics.
“Dr. Memar joins an elite group of junior researchers nationwide to receive this honorable award and becomes the eighth BECE faculty recipient of this honor,” Abu-Lail said. “The department is committed to fostering her research, educational, and mentoring plan.”
Memar said the funding — $600,000 through 2031 — is a huge boost to her research. More importantly, the award validates her work.
“I have a unique position,” Memar said. “I know both computational modeling and biomechanics, as well as animal study. That’s a unique combination that allows me to explore this area.”
That exploration has been slow going, she said. Memar has been working toward this vision for years, but funding is hard to come by. She always had to divide the idea into smaller segments based on available funding. The grant, she said, makes it easier for her to move forward. “It gives me time and resources and stability to pursue this long-term, big picture vision instead of just going with small incremental projects toward the same goal.”
Her work has already yielded some results regarding TBIs in male and female brains. Memar is reluctant to share that information, preferring to wait until there is more data and a complete study is ready for publishing.
“Engineering and biomechanics can play a key role in how we understand, prevent, and study traumatic brain injury, which is an important human health topic,” she said. “By leveraging advanced computational brain models, AI, and pathology data from animal studies across species, we can enhance the human relevance and translational impact of those studies. This will eventually reduce unnecessary testing and accelerate progress toward more effective strategies for monitoring and protecting brain health in humans.”
— Sean M. Wood
