Paying Forward, Giving Back

Dr. Hasan Bazari ’76CC, ’78GSAS and ’79GSAS understands what it means to pay it forward and he knows from experience the importance of giving back. 

Born in India, Hasan moved to Malaysia at age six to live with his father. “I was independent from a young age, and I decided I wanted to explore the world,” he said. 

When the time came to apply to college, the United States offered educational advantages. Faced with many choices, Hasan reached out for advice. 

“I took all the college information I received to a gentleman who had studied in the U.S., and I reviewed everything with him,” Hasan said. “He suggested that Columbia was the best choice.”

He was awarded a full scholarship and arrived on campus at age 18. The 1970s were a time of tumult at colleges across the country, and Columbia was at the forefront. “It was a remarkable time of protests interspersed with school,” Hasan recalled.

He majored in biological sciences, planning to become a doctor. As he headed into his senior year, he fell in love with the Barnard student who became his wife in 1980, Wendy Levoy Bazari ’78. “Together we moved ahead with what has been a remarkable relationship,” he said, one that helped him come to terms with the disappointment of being rejected from every medical school he applied to. 

Hasan went on to pursue two graduate degrees in biological sciences at Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). He reapplied to medical schools and turned to Dean Patricia Geisler, his premedical advisor, for support.  

“Dean Geisler was instrumental in getting me in,” Hasan said. “I still remember the optimism she had. I treasured her optimism and have tried to model it in my work, which has been to train the next generation of leaders in medicine.”

He was accepted at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City three weeks before classes started. 

His time at Columbia, he says, taught him the importance of coming to understand who he really was. 

“Identity is an important feature of what I gained from Columbia,” he said. “You have to become flexible with your goals depending on your circumstances, but you never lose sight of your career goal.”

“I was incredibly lucky to get into Einstein,” he continued. “As a result, my whole life changed and I was happy to work hard. It is remarkable that I had all these opportunities given to me.”

Wendy preceded him at Einstein by one year, earning a Ph.D. in molecular biology. Hasan earned his MD in 1983. From there, they moved to Boston. He established a practice in internal medicine and nephrology and led the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) from 1994 to 2014. 

In 2008, his reputation for outstanding mentorship earned him the Parker Palmer Award, given to 10 outstanding program directors in the medical subspecialties. In 2015, he received Einstein’s Distinguished Alumnus/Clinical Practitioner Award, recognizing his success as a clinician and an educator.

Hasan continues to teach medical students. He and Wendy live in Charles River Park near MGH. They are proud to share the Columbia bond with their children, Anissa Bazari ’06 and Adam Bazari ’10. 

To Hasan and Wendy, giving back is just as important as paying forward. They make regular annual gifts to Columbia College to support financial aid and have included a gift in their will to endow a scholarship fund for the College. 

In the spring of 2022, he and Wendy established an endowed scholarship fund in Dean Geisler’s honor, the Patricia Dykema Geisler Scholarship Fund, to be given annually to an undergraduate student who demonstrates a need for financial aid. “I wanted to make a small difference in repaying the gift that Columbia paid to me in giving me a scholarship,” Hasan said. 

The fund allows other alumni to make contributions of their own. Dean Geisler touched the lives of many students, Hasan said, and helped those who, like himself, may have questioned their ability and potential to achieve their aspirations and their dreams. 

“We are indebted to Dean Geisler,” he said, “for understanding our passion and unleashing it on the world.”