Amir Gazar receives international Quad Fellowship

When Amir Gazar arrived in Blacksburg from Australia in 2021, he didn’t know anyone and couldn’t attend his classes in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Four years later, Gazar has expanded his social and professional networks to the point of being the first Hokie named a Quad Fellowship recipient. 

“Amir is a brilliant early career scholar with a clear passion for using science for the betterment of society,” said William Hopkins, director of the Global Change Center. “His cutting-edge research focuses on the transition to more sustainable energy systems and how public policies shaping these transitions can better serve communities and the environment. Amir has adopted an inclusive, community-centric approach to all his work, seeking to engage stakeholders at every step of the energy transition process.” 

Managed by the nonprofit Institute of International Education, the Quad Fellowship was launched in 2021 by the United States, Australia, India, and Japan as a first-of-its-kind fellowship designed to foster cross-national collaboration in STEM fields, according to its website. It's since expanded to 10 Southeast Asian countries. Its fellowships are awarded to select graduate students based on their academic excellence and passion for the intersection of STEM and social impact.

Gazar was one of 37 fellows selected as a 2025 Quad Fellow from universities in the United States and Japan.

“Amir embodies what it means to be a Quad Fellow as well as a scientist at a land-grant institution like Virginia Tech — always striving to use knowledge and equitable decision making to improve the human condition,” said Hopkins, who is also a professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation.

The primary goal of the fellowship is to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists as well as government officials and corporations around the globe.

Gazar views the award as becoming a lifetime member of a club that provides a networking platform to engage in the ever-evolving domestic and international conversations related to science and policy. 

He credits his Quad Fellowship to his experiences through the Global Change Center’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program, which Hopkins oversees. Through the program, Gazar won best poster in 2024 at the 18th International Conference on Energy Sustainability by American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which he said encouraged him to apply for the fellowship. 

“All that stuff helps build the character of a scientist who can communicate their science effectively and also be able to talk to different groups of folks from across the world who might not have anything in common other than the interest of building a science policy framework that has a net positive impact on society,” said Gazar, an affiliate with the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. “I would say, 100 percent, without the Global Change Center, I don’t think it would have happened.”

The Quad Fellowship comes with a $20,000 award for academic expenses and a seat at the table with an international collaboration of researchers, government officials, and policy experts. Gazar said he’d already met several government diplomats as a result of the weekly meetings.

A Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Public Health Sciences, Gazar’s research centers around speaking with residents of specific areas about energy related policies to better understand their perspectives and to ensure their voices are heard.

“I’m interested in building models and tools that can bridge the gap between technical systems and policy implementation,” Gazar said. “What we are trying to do is to introduce a political realism into energy models that are reflective of the settings that they’re going to be applied to.” 

For example, Gazar said when coal power generation is reduced, air pollution and its effects, such as childhood asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer, are reduced in urban areas like Boston. However, rural states such as New Hampshire do not benefit as much as those in urban areas. 

His team of researchers, including his mentor, Ryan Calder, assistant professor of environmental health and policy, work with local nonprofit organizations to help recruit members of a community to engage in full-day workshops to discuss and debate policies until a consensus is reached. The role of the researchers in this process he calls “citizen jury” is only to supply the scientific facts and to listen to the participants. 

“Virginia Tech is a leading institution in scientific work, and what we are doing is unique,” Gazar said. “I came here because of science and because of my mentor. Virginia Tech does a great job in empowering all students and giving every student a unique experience but also helping them to succeed.”