An Iranian public university that has supported research relevant to Iran's nuclear program, missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

In 2018, faculty co-authored a paper on material analysis techniques using gamma radiation with Fereidoun Abbasi-Davani, a U.N.-sanctioned former senior scientist at Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) then serving as a faculty member at Shahid Beheshti University (SBU), as well as with scientists from Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT) and the Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute (NSTRI), part of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

Faculty has studied uranium production safety issues in collaboration with K. N. Toosi University of Technology (KNTU), Russia-based Tomsk Polytechnic University, and Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom; in cooperation with Tomsk Polytechnic University and a Kazakh research center, faculty has studied the fuel cycle for a research reactor; in collaboration with Tomsk Polytechnic University, faculty has studied fuel design for a gas-cooled reactor.

In collaboration with Sharif University of Technology (SUT), faculty has researched rotating disks used in missiles; in cooperation with Shahrood University of Technology, faculty has studied cylindrical shells used in missile airframes and aircraft fuselages; faculty has conducted research on composite beams used in missiles, algorithms used in tracking ballistic missiles, combustion in the chamber of a solid-propellant rocket motor, the redundancy and reliability of air-to-air missile fuse electronics, controller design for a missile's yaw-channel, and the reliability and availability of a coastal missile defense system along the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

In collaboration with Shahrood University of Technology and a scientist at Imperial College London in 2019, faculty conducted research on fuel injection systems for a two-stroke UAV engine; in 2020, faculty studied UAV guidance in cooperation with the University of Tehran (UT) and a scientist at a university in Australia; in 2009, faculty published research on a remotely piloted vehicle's guidance, navigation, and computer control system.

In 2023, participated in a delegation of Iranian officials touring research centers and universities in Syria; in 2017, hosted meetings with Russian officials and concluded a memorandum of understanding on scientific cooperation with Kazan Federal University.

Consists of 12 faculties, 38 research centers, and seven centers of excellence; engineering faculty includes a department for metallurgy and publishes the Journal of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, a Persian-language scientific journal on metallurgy; offers master's and doctoral degrees in nuclear physics; employs 820 faculty members and hosts over 20,000 students.

President is Ahad Zabett; former officials include Mohammad Kafi (president), Alireza Ashouri (president), and Abdolreza Bagheri (president).

Alumni include Fereidoun Abbasi-Davani, who reportedly earned a master's degree in nuclear physics.

Established in 1949 as the Center for Medical Sciences; renamed Mashhad University in 1956; renamed Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in 1975.