The Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year Award is targeted to junior investigators (Assistant Professor/Instructor or equivalent) who are in the career development stages of their research work, with a faculty appointment of at least three but no more than seven years and a demonstrated focus on aging/geriatrics research. The ideal candidate is an individual who has been awarded a career development award, pilot grant, or institutional grant (but not an R01). Applicants must demonstrate a record of accomplishments in aging/geriatrics research, such as (a) first-authorship on original aging/geriatrics research publications (not review articles); (b) poster/oral presentations of aging research at national meetings; and/or (c) submission of at least one research grant as principal investigator. Applicants must also demonstrate evidence of a career plan related to aging research.
2023 Recipients:
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Halima Amjad, MD, PhD, MPH
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Tim Anderson, MD, MA, MAS
The Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year Award this year honors Halima Amjad, MD, PhD, MPH, an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins University. A junior clinician investigator with a passion for dementia care, Dr. Amjad works to inform and improve the care of older adults with dementia through health services research and care delivery interventions that can be implemented in real world settings. Dr. Amjad is an accomplished researcher who has built an impressive body of work including 34 peer-reviewed publications, including 13 first- or senior-author research manuscripts, 5 invited commentaries, and 7 oral abstract presentations. She has received an impressive 7 internal and external research and career development awards, including a KL2 award, Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Resource Center for Minority Aging Research pilot award, NIA R03 award, and most recently a NIA K23 award. Through these grants, Dr. Amjad has researched potentially unsafe activities and healthcare utilization in older adults living undiagnosed or unaware of dementia and now uses her findings to develop a practical intervention to facilitate high quality, comprehensive post-diagnosis care for dementia in primary care settings. An active member of the AGS, Dr. Amjad has served as the Chair of the Fellows-in-Training section, participated in the first cohort of the JAGS Junior Reviewer Program, currently sits on the JAGS Editorial Board, and in 2017 was awarded the Junior Research Manuscript Award for her paper on continuity of care and health services utilization in dementia. A rising star in aging and dementia care research, Dr. Amjad has built an impressive record of research accomplishments and has demonstrated a deep commitment to a career in aging research.
The Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year Award this year honors Tim Anderson, MD, MA, MAS, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in the Division of General Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. An experienced early-stage investigator with more than 35 first and senior-authored publications, Dr. Anderson’s co-directs the BIDMC Prescribing Wisely Lab where his research portfolio studies the prescribing and deprescribing of older adults’ chronic medications and the impact of hospitalization on older adults’ chronic disease trajectories. Dr. Anderson has received substantial external grant funding, including: a NIA K76 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging, an American Heart Association Career Development Award, an NIA GEMSSTAR R03 grant, an American College of Cardiology Bellows Geriatric Cardiology Award, a Boston OAIC Pepper Center Research and Education Core Pilot Award and two pilot awards from the US Deprescribing Research Network. Dr. Anderson’s research has influenced both public discourse, with press coverage in The New York Times and other media outlets, and clinical practice, with his work recognized in the New England Journal of Medicine’s Journal Watch as a “Top Clinical Practice Changing Article” of the year. He has been an active member of the AGS since first attending the Annual Meeting as a fellow, and since then has delivered a plenary paper presentation at AGS18, participated in two AGS/ACC/NIA-sponsored U-13 conferences, written and served as a peer-reviewer for JAGS, and co-organized an AGS22 symposium. A talented emerging investigator at the intersection of aging, prescribing, and transitions of care, Dr. Anderson is commended for his highly innovative and impactful research that will improve care for hospitalized older adults.
Past Recipients of the Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year Award
2022 Ariel Green, MD, MPH, PhD
2021 Lauren Ferrante, MD, MHS
2020 Andrew Cohen, MD, DPhil
2019 Nancy Schoenborn, MD, MHS
2018 John Newman, MD, PhD
2017 Dae Kim, MD, MPH, ScD
2016 Rebecca Brown, MD, MPH
S. Ryan Greysen, MD, MHS, MA, FHM
2015 Micah Drummond, MD
2014 Sarah D. Berry, MD
2013 Amy Kelley, MD, MSHS
Heather Whitson, MD, MSHS