[15] After graduating from the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa in 1993, she served for three years in the Israeli Air Force, reaching the rank of first lieutenant.

[citation needed] In 2006, Oxman began an interdisciplinary research project at MIT called material ecology, to experiment with generative design.

[30][31][32] Oxman's Mediated Matter research group uses computational design, digital fabrication, 3D printing, materials science and synthetic biology for large and small structures.

Projects have ranged in scale from enclosures and large furniture, to artwork and clothes, to biocomposites, artificial valves, and DNA assembly.

Projects include wearable clothes and tools,[34] solar-powered and biodegradable designs,[35] new artistic techniques, and construction of surfaces, walls, coverings and load-bearing elements.

The frame of a large polyhedral dome was loosely woven by a robotic arm out of thin nylon threads, and suspended in an open room.

This was developed in collaboration with a beekeeping company, as a way of testing possible responses to colony loss, and exploring how biological niches could be integrated into buildings.

[40] She also collaborated with van Herpen and materials scientist W. Craig Carter on Anthozoa, a cape and skirt evocative of marine life.

The collection included the Living Mushtari chestpiece, a model digestive tract filled containing a colony of microorganisms that could sustain life in harsh environments.

[12][45] Oxman also developed Lazarus, a project designed to capture the wearer's last breath, and began work on Vespers, a collection of 15 death masks.

[62] Also in 2014, the group developed Aguahoja, a project involving a water-based fabrication platform that built structures out of chitosan, a curable water-soluble organic fiber similar to chitin.

The resulting combination of hard and soft structures could change from solid to willowy over the length of a branch or leaf, using the same base material.

[15] This was demonstrated in a pair of installations, Aguahoja I and II, featuring a central 15-foot tall sculpture resembling "enormous, folded cicada wings".

[64][65][66] Starting in 2018, the Mediated Matter lab developed the Totems project, exploring ways to extract melanin from different species and embed it in 3D-printed structures.

This led to a concept for buildings with facades that respond to sunlight, such as a proposed architectural pavilion initiated by Ravi Naidoo and introduced at his Design Indaba conference.

This is intended to serve as a long-term control against which to compare the original, in measuring how chitosan degrades or is influenced by environmental changes.

[72][73] Oxman asked people in her lab to prepare and send a gift to Epstein, according to documents shared by an MIT employee.

"[73] Oxman stated she was aware, adding in the e-mail, that “Jeff E.” should always be “confidential" and told the student that they were not sponsored by Epstein.

The resulting hive structures were analyzed by CT scans to allow digital reconstruction and provide insight into the bees' construction process.

[77] In late 2023, Oxman's husband, Bill Ackman, joined calls to remove Claudine Gay as president of Harvard over plagiarism accusations.

[84] Business Insider's owner Axel Springer said that it investigated the outlet's "processes" after Ackman questioned their motives,[85] and stood by its reporting.

[88] She proposed developing a material ecology with "holistic products, characterized by property gradients and multi-functionality" – placing humanity in harmony with nature,[89] in contrast to assembly lines and “a world made of parts".

[8][92] Museum of Modern Art curator Paola Antonelli described Oxman's work as a way to "decipher nature's myriad [design] lessons and render them digitally for future application at all scales.

"[89] Oxman's approach to form generation and environmental design[93] is cited by rapid prototypers in other fields,[94] and gave a popular 2015 TED talk on material ecology.