Nasim Annabi, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows.
Elected by her peers, she was recognized for “outstanding contributions to the development and clinical translation of biomaterials for surgical repair, regenerative medicine and targeted drug delivery.”
AIMBE Fellows are among the top 2% of medical and biological engineers who make outstanding contributions to their fields through research, practice or education. Annabi was one of 176 new inductees in this year’s College of Fellows class.
Annabi’s research has pioneered the design and engineering of multifunctional biomaterials with tunable properties, enabling major advances in tissue engineering, ultra-strong bioadhesives, and nanoengineered systems for targeted drug and gene delivery.
In 2025, Annabi was named a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and, for the fourth consecutive year, recognized on Clarivate’s 2025 Highly Cited Researchers List — a distinction given to researchers who have publications in the top 1% worldwide for research influence. She has also received the Society for Biomaterials (SFB)’s 2021 Young Investigator Award, the 2020 Nanoscale Science and Engineering Young Investigator Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and the 2021 Biomaterials Science Lectureship Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).
Annabi received her doctorate in chemical and biomolecular engineering from the University of Sydney, Australia, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. She is also a co-founder of GelMEDIX, a biotechnology company developing regenerative therapies to combat and restore vision loss.
A formal induction ceremony for 2026 AIMBE fellows was held April 13 during the organization’s annual conference in Arlington, Virginia.