Dr. Fateme Fayyazbakhsh, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Missouri S&T, was awarded the Wound Healing Society’s 2026 Early-Career Faculty Award during the organization’s annual meeting held earlier this month in Charlotte, North Carolina. 
  
The award recognizes early-career faculty advancing research in wound healing and supports their continued professional growth. Fayyazbakhsh was unanimously selected by the society’s executive committee as one of two recipients for 2026.   
  
“Effectively treating and healing wounds is vital for human health, recovery and overall well-being, which is why I’m passionate about this work,” Fayyazbakhsh says. “Receiving this recognition from the Wound Healing Society shows me that my research is moving in the right direction, and it is a true honor.”  

As one of this year’s award recipients, she will present her research during the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care this fall in Las Vegas.  
  
Fayyazbakhsh’s research focuses on smart biomaterials, bioprinting, transdermal drug delivery systems and AI-powered diagnostics for wound care, and bioastronautics, or how conditions in space affect human health and healing. 
 
She joined S&T in 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher working with Dr. Ming Leu, S&T’s Keith and Pat Bailey Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering. In 2022, she became an assistant research professor. Last year, she was appointed as an assistant professor for mechanical and aerospace engineering with a joint appointment in the Linda and Bipin Doshi Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering.  
 
At S&T, she has collaborated with Dr. Delbert Day, a Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emeritus in materials science and engineering and member of the National Academy of Engineering, who pioneered the use of glass products for healthcare in the 1980s at S&T. She also works with Dr. Shelley Minteer, S&T’s Dr. Ken Robertson Memorial Professor in Chemistry and director of the Kummer Institute Center for Resource Sustainability, on topics related to synthetic biology, and often collaborates other S&T faculty members. 

She is a founder and vice president of LF Printech, a startup company focused on bioprinting and advanced healthcare products that has received support from the National Science Foundation. 
  
Before coming to S&T, she was a research and development manager for a bioengineering company in Iran.  
  
Fayyazbakhsh earned a Ph.D in biomedical engineering, a master’s degree in tissue engineering and a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, all from Tehran Polytechnic.  
  
Some of her professional memberships include the Wound Healing Society, the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Materials Research Society, and the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). In 2020, she was honored with the TERMIS Young Investigator Award.  
 
To learn more about S&T’s mechanical and aerospace engineering programs, visit mae.mst.edu.  

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.