Nadeem Fazal, MD, PhD, is a truly international scholar, having researched and taught on three continents. He is now returning to Baku, Azerbaijan, on his second Fulbright Scholar Award. There, he will spend the 2026–27 academic year at the Azerbaijan Medical University developing modernization techniques for medical education.
An International Career
Dr. Fazal earned his MD at King Edward Medical University in Lahore, Pakistan. He then moved to the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom for his PhD in Immunology and Microbiology. While in the UK, he joined AAI. For his third continent as a trainee, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Stritch School of Medicine of Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois.
Dr. Fazal has held teaching positions in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the U.K., and the U.S., and is currently Professor of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Chicago State University, College of Health Sciences and Pharmacy. His research explores the mechanisms of cellular immune responses to acute injury and infection, as well as the pharmacological agents that modulate inflammatory and infectious responses.
Fulbright Goals
In Azerbaijan, Dr. Fazal will work to help the university’s medical education program take advantage of technological developments to develop curriculum, train faculty, and foster collaboration. “Digital health technologies have progressed from basic Computer-Assisted Instruction programs to advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR)/Augmented Reality (AR), and this evolution will be central to my teaching and research activities during the award period.”
Dr. Fazal will explore using blockchain-based academic credentialing, which could securely store and verify student achievements, research projects, and clinical training records. “This method would promote transparency, integrity, and international recognition of Azerbaijani medical education credentials.”
The first time that Dr. Fazal went to Azerbaijan on a Fulbright Award, in 2018–19, he taught at Khazar University, where he gave seminars including “Modern Trends in Education” and “PhD–To Be or Not To Be.”
Benefits of Membership
Dr. Fazal has a been an AAI member since 2002. He told us at IMMUNOLOGY2025™ that he credits the association with facilitating the networking connections that led to his postdoc in Birmingham. Ever since, he has attended the AAI annual meeting regularly, always bringing his immunology students with him.
