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2008 February - Athar Malik |
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 Shining Star of the Month- January 2008
Athar Malik, Boston Majlis
This month's Shining Star is Athar N. Malik, a Khadim from Boston
Majlis. He currently serves the Jama’at as Secretary Tabligh and
Amoor-e-Tulaba (Student Affairs) for MKA-Boston, as well as the Imam
for the Boston Jummah Center , and the General Secretary for the
Association of Ahmadi Muslim Scientists-USA (AAMS-USA).
Professionally, Athar is pursuing an M.D. degree through the
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology as well as a
Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School as an M.D./Ph.D.
student at Harvard Medical School. Athar feels very blessed to be a
member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and strives to serve his
religion and humanity.
In high school, Athar balanced his time between academics,
extracurricular pursuits, and Jama’at work. He took the most advanced
courses available to develop his growing interest in science and
mathematics and to build his knowledge in other subject areas. After
class, Athar was involved with a variety of high school organizations,
volunteering programs, and school sports teams. Athar was also blessed
to have the opportunity to serve as Nazim Atfal. In 2001, Athar
graduated from high school ranked first in his class of nearly 400
students. Athar received many honors and awards for his achievements
in high school, including the Maulana Sheikh Mubarak Ahmad Scholarship
from the U.S. Jama’at.
As a senior in high school, Athar thought carefully about what he
wanted to study in college. After considering many majors, he
eventually decided that Biomedical Engineering (BME) would be the
perfect major for him as it would integrate his diverse scientific
interests and enable him to employ science to benefit humanity.
Desiring to pursue BME, Athar applied to the #1 ranked undergraduate
BME program in the country, the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,
Maryland. Athar was blessed to not only be accepted by the Johns
Hopkins University but also to receive a competitive merit-based
scholarship from it. Athar felt very blessed to have the opportunity
to study BME at Johns Hopkins and worked hard to make the most of this
opportunity. In addition to excelling in his coursework, Athar became
actively involved in a variety of other activities on campus. He
conducted tissue engineering research and published three scientific
articles based on his results, shadowed physicians at the Johns Hopkins
Hospital , served as a residential advisor for fellow undergraduates,
and held leadership roles in a number of organizations on campus.
During college, Athar also served on the National Aamila of Majlis
Atfal-ul-Ahmadiyya, USA, as the Finance and Tajneed Secretary. In
2005, Athar graduated from college with honors in Biomedical
Engineering. In addition to other honors and awards received in
college, Athar received the Dr. Abdus Salam Scholarship and Talent
Award from the U.S. Jama’at.
In college, Athar was attracted to both medicine and research as
potential careers. In the end, he decided that he wanted to pursue
both of these fields as a physician-scientist and, to gain the best
training towards this goal, applied to combined M.D./Ph.D. programs.
Athar was accepted by the M.D./Ph.D. program at Harvard Medical School,
with full funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health via a
Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) fellowship, and is currently
a 3rd year student there. Athar is studying activity dependent changes
in the nervous system for his Ph.D. and hopes to study and treat
neurological diseases in the future as a physician-scientist. While
his academic pursuits keep him busy, Athar does his best to attend
Jama’at activities and discharge the responsibilities of his offices in
the Jama’at. Additionally, he always seeks for opportunities to advise
and mentor young members of the Jama’at about how they can achieve
their educational and professional goals.
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60th Jalsa Salana, USA 
