Babak Vajdi Hokmabad is an Associate Research Scholar in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tabriz (Iran) and his M.S. from the University of Alberta (Canada), before earning his Ph.D. in Physics from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (Germany). His research explores the non-equilibrium dynamics of soft and active materials, with a focus on how chemical and mechanical processes couple to drive complex behaviors in living and synthetic systems. Outside the lab, Babak enjoys watching and occasionally playing soccer, traveling, and discovering new coffee shops around the city.