Mohammad Sharif Razai is a physician, poet, author and researcher. He was awarded the 2021

John Maddox Prize The John Maddox Prize is an international prize administered by Sense about Science in partnership with ''Nature''. One or two individuals are recognised annually by the Prize for their work promoting sound science and evidence despite hostility. ...

as an

early career researcher Certain scholarly funding agencies make a distinction between investigators and new investigators. New investigators would be evaluated in a different way when competing for funding with more seasoned researchers, or they would be able to access ...

, by Sense about Science and ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'' for his work on racial health inequalities.

Early life and education

Razai was born in Afghanistan and came to the UK when he was 14. He studied medicine at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

Career

Razai works as a medical doctor in the UK's

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

, and as a researcher at St George's University of London. Razai's writings deal with health inequalities in particular during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Mohammad Razai is also a published poet and has written for the ''

Poetry Review ''Poetry Review'' is the magazine of The Poetry Society, edited by the poet Emily Berry. Founded in 1912, shortly after the establishment of the Society, previous editors have included poets Muriel Spark, Adrian Henri, Andrew Motion and Maurice R ...

'', ''Brittle Stars'', '' Tears in the Fence, Under the Radar'' '','' ''Brixton Review of Books'' and other poetry magazines. He also contributes to ''

the BMJ ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...

'' Opinion regularly on a wide range of topics.

Awards and honours

Razai was awarded the

in 2021 as an early career research. In 2021, there were over 100 nominations from across 23 countries, with the winners announced in a ceremony at the

Wellcome Collection Wellcome Collection is a museum and library based at 183 Euston Road, London, displaying a mixture of medical artefacts and original artworks exploring "ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art". Founded in 2007, the Wellcome C ...

. The winners were chosen by an international panel of judges and were presented their awards following comments from Tracey Brown, director of Sense about Science, ''

'' editor-in-chief

Magdalena Skipper Magdalena Skipper is a British geneticist and the editor-in-chief of the journal ''Nature''. She previously served as an editor of ''Nature Reviews Genetics'' and the open access journal ''Nature Communications''. Education Skipper obtained ...

and

Bronwen Maddox Bronwen Maria Maddox (born 7 May 1963) is a former journalist who has served as the director and CEO of think tank Chatham House since August 2022. Prior to this, she was the Director of the Institute for Government between 2016 and 2022. Maddo ...

, daughter of the late

John Maddox Sir John Royden Maddox, FRS (27 November 1925 – 12 April 2009) was a Welsh theoretical chemist, turned physicist, and science writer. He was an editor of ''Nature'' for 22 years, from 1966 to 1973 and 1980 to 1995. Education and early ...

. On receiving the award, Razai paid tribute to family members who had just fled Afghanistan. "No matter what obstacles and challenges we may face as scientists in the global north, it is not the same as Afghan scientists, especially women and those from racial minorities, who literally pay with their lives in speaking truth and standing up for their rights," he said. "I remember them and dedicate this prize to them." In 2021, he received St George's University's excellence in public/civic engagement research award for his work to tackle ethnic and societal health disparities and inequalities. Razai also received an award during his training as a doctor for his work during the COVID-19 pandemic by ''

Pulse In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the n ...

'' magazine. In 2021, he was awarded a research fellowship by the

National Institute for Health and Care Research The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "im ...

(NIHR).

Selected publications

* Razai, Mohammad Sharif; Oakeshott, Pippa; Kankam, Hadyn et al. (21 May 2020). Mitigating the psychological effects of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic BMJ 2020; 369 :m1904 doi:10.1136/bmj.m1904 * Razai Mohammad Sharif, Kankam H K N, Majeed A, Esmail A, Williams D R. (15 January 2021) Mitigating ethnic disparities in COVID-19 and beyond BMJ 2021; 372 :m4921 doi:10.1136/bmj.m4921 * Razai, Mohammad Sharif, Oakeshott Pippa, Esmail A, Wiysonge CS, Viswanath K, Mills MC. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: the five Cs to tackle behavioural and sociodemographic factors. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 2021;114(6):295-298. doi:10.1177/01410768211018951 * Razai, Mohammad Sharif, Doerholt K, Galiza E, Oakeshott P. Tick bite BMJ 2020; 370 :m3029 doi:10.1136/bmj.m3029 * Razai, Mohammad Sharif, Chaudhry U A R, Doerholt K, Bauld L, Majeed A. COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy BMJ 2021; 373 :n1138 doi:10.1136/bmj.n1138 * Elise Paul, Daisy Fancourt, Mohammad Sharif Razai. (05 May 2022). Racial discrimination, low trust in the health system and COVID-19 vaccine uptake: a longitudinal observational study of 633 UK adults from ethnic minority groups. ''Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Razai, Mohammad Sharif John Maddox Prize recipients Academics of St George's, University of London Alumni of the University of Cambridge People from Kabul Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Afghan diaspora in Europe Health equity 20th-century Afghan poets Afghan medical writers 21st-century Afghan poets