Awards, Recognitions, Honors

Featured Awards​​​

• Marshall Scholar: Winners of the 2024 Scholarship

• Winner, $40,000 Banga Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship — Harvard University

• Winner, 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health — National Minority Quality Forum:  40 Under 40 Leaders in Health - 2024

• Winner, $40,000 Award for Excellence in Science Communications – Schmidt Futures and National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine: National Academies Announce 2023 Recipients​​​​

• Winner, 40 Under 40 in Cancer - consortium of oncology groups. 40 Under 40 in Cancer Congratulates the Class of 2023

• Winner, Science Story of the Year - Foreign Press Association: FPA Media Awards 2022

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Writing Awards

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• Winner, Excellence in Health Care Journalism: Student Reporting — Association of Health Care Journalists: Meet the winners of the 2023 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism

• Winner, Mark of Excellence: General News Reporting — Society of Professional Journalists New England: Region 1 Mark of Excellence Awards 2023 winners announced

• Winner, Newcomer of the Year - Medical Journalists Association: Congratulations to all our winners: MJA Awards 2023​

• Winner, Newcomer of the Year - Association of British Science Writers: ABSW Awards 2023: The Winners​​​​

• Winner, Student Journalism Award - Online News Association: Portfolio: Student​​​

• Finalist, Freelance of the Year - Medical Journalists' Association: MJA Awards 2023 — Meet the Finalists​​​

• Runner-Up, Excellence in News Reporting - Asian American Journalists Association: Written Journalism Awards 2023​​

• ​Honorable Mention, W. Curtis Worthington, Jr. Essay Contest - Waring Historical Library: Announcing the Winners

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Academic and Service Awards

• 2024 National Young Scholars in General Internal Medicine Scholarship

• Phi Beta Kappa: 24 Harvard juniors for “exceptional academic achievement in the arts and sciences"

• Detur Book Prize: ~50 Harvard sophomores who "attained very high academic standing"

• John Harvard Scholarship: 5% of Harvard students in the top 5% of their class

• Veritas Award: 1 Harvard student "who demonstrates an exceptional commitment to intellectual curiosity inside and outside the classroom... holds him/herself to a high standard of academic excellence and integrity in the search for truth, and encourages a vibrant and ever-aspiring learning community"

• National Student Leadership Foundation Scholarship: $20,000 award to 8 students for "academic excellence, demonstrated leadership in extracurricular activities"

• Gold President's Volunteer Service Award: given to individuals "whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action"

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Journalism Fellowships​

• Winner, Science Writers' Travel Stipend - American Heart Association

• Winner, Harper's Magazine Scholarship - Overseas Press Club Foundation: Congratulations to the 2024 Winners

• Winner, AAAS Travel Fellowship - National Association of Science Writers: Ten students receive NASW travel funding

• Winner, Summer Diversity Fellowship - National Association of Science Writers: NASW Fellows 2023

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Speaking Engagements​​​​

• National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (December 19, 2023): Effective Communication with the General Public about Scientific Research that Requires the Care and Use of Animals — A Workshop

• The Harker School (April 18, 2023): Research Symposium - Alumni Keynote Simar Bajaj

• MIT (February 24, 2023): Guest lecture in Global Health Informatics to Improve Quality of Care, taught by Professor Leo Celi

• Harvard College (December 5, 2022): Guest lecture in Narrative Scientific Journalism, taught by Professor Michael Pollan

• UCSF School of Medicine (November 2, 2022): Vaccine Apartheid: Can we decolonize the distribution of health resources?

• Harvard Kennedy School (September 9, 2022): Vaccine Hesitancy: Between Miracle & Mistrust

• Humans of Harvard College (February 28, 2021): Simar Bajaj

• Providence, Rhode Island City Council (November 23, 2020): National Lung Cancer Awareness Month Conversation

• TEDx (January 29, 2020): Breaking the Locks: Why I Cut My Hair After 17 Years

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Quotes and Press Features ​​

• Overseas Press Club Foundation (April 8, 2024): Simar Bajaj named 40 Under 40 Leaders in Health

• NASW (March 19, 2024): Hope, Energy, and Immense Support: NASW Diversity Summer Fellowship uplifts science writing trainees

• KFF (February 20, 2024): CDC Study Finds Teens Use Drugs To Find Calmness

• Online News Association (January 24, 2024): How journalism is informing FDA regulations on pig-human organ transplants

• The Week (December 17, 2023): 2023: the year of the weight-loss drug craze

• Harvard Crimson (December 12, 2023): Five Harvard College Affiliates Named Marshall Scholars

• The Harvard Gazette (December 11, 2023): Six Harvard students named Marshall Scholars

• CIDRAP (August 31, 2023): Cancer patients saw higher mortality from COVID-19

• Good Morning America (August 24, 2023): Obesity specialists are scarce, new report shows

• The Hill (August 22, 2023): ‘Eris’ COVID strain leaves vaccine strategy mostly unchanged

• The Hill (August 4, 2023): Americans largely interested in prescription weight-loss drugs

• Washington Post (July 28, 2023): Nearly 4 million in U.S. cut from Medicaid, most for paperwork reasons

• The Hill (July 21, 2023): New US pandemic office set to launch

• Washington Post (July 6, 2023): More abortion rights ballot measures are coming

• Harvard Crimson (March 29, 2023): Phi Beta Kappa Elects ‘Junior 24’ from Class of 2024

• Harvard University Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (December 2, 2022): Undergraduate Simar Bajaj awarded FPA Science Story of the Year Award

• Estadão (November 30, 2022): OMS sugere aproveitar vacinação contra covid-19 para fazer imunização de rotina

• Healio (August 16, 2022): Delayed vs. early surgery linked to shorter survival in advanced esophageal cancer

• Drug Discovery News (July 24, 2022): Trailblazing scientist changes the view of obesity

• POLITICO (July 6, 2022): Flawed devices and Covid-19 diagnoses

• New York Times (May 31, 2022): The Doctor Prescribed an Obesity Drug. Her Insurer Called It ‘Vanity.’

• New York Times (May 24, 2022): What Vaccine Apartheid Portends for the Climate Future

• American College of Surgeons (May 12, 2022): Delays in surgery for advanced esophageal cancer result in significantly worse survival than early surgery

• The Harvard Gazette (November 30, 2021): ‘Writing to push conversations forward’

• Massachusetts General Hospital (October 15, 2021): ‘Superhuman, but never enough’: Essay details inequities experienced by Black women physicians in the United States

• Boston.com (August 12, 2021): Vaccine honor system may be harming vulnerable communities, say MGH researchers

• U.S. News (February 11, 2021): To Save Their Communities, Black Ministers Preach the Gospel About the COVID-19 Vaccine

• The Hill (January 27, 2021): Black people in the US are getting vaccinated at lower rates

• The Harker School (January 21, 2021): Bajaj ’20 published in New England Journal of Medicine

• The Harvard Gazette (September 15, 2020): Inspired to action, eager to serve: A community-wide effort for Harvard’s first Global Day of Service

• Harker Aquila (April 21, 2020): Humans of Harker: To help, to heal