Dr. Gajjar studied medicine and completed his internship at Grant Medical College in Bombay, India. He completed an immunology research fellowship at the University of Oklahoma followed by a pediatric residency at All Children’s Hospital, University of South Florida, where he served as Chief Pediatric Resident. Dr. Gajjar then completed a pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship and a pediatric neuro-oncology fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr. Gajjar joined the Division of Neuro-Oncology at St. Jude as a faculty member in 1993.
Since joining the faculty, Dr. Gajjar has risen steadily through the academic ranks. He was appointed as Director of the Division of Neuro-Oncology in 2002, promoted to Full Member (Professor) in 2004 and in 2005, he was appointed a CoLeader of the Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program and Co-Chair of the Department of Oncology. In recognition of his academic excellence, in 2007 he was awarded the Scott and Tracie Hamilton Endowed Chair in Brain Tumor Research. In 2016, he was appointed as Chair of the Department of Pediatric Medicine. Nationally, Dr. Gajjar has served as the Chair of the Brain Tumor Committee in the Children’s Oncology Group. Dr. Gajjar is the principal or co-principal investigator of several innovative clinical trials which feature new treatments for a variety of brain tumors, especially
medulloblastoma. He has been instrumental in the growth of the Brain Tumor Program at St. Jude and has developed international collaborations with leading brain tumor programs in Germany, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Dr Gajjar has trained and mentored several fellows and junior faculty, several of who are leading their own brain tumor programs across the globe. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Neuro Oncology and
Up-to-Date and has been on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He also serves as an Adhoc Reviewer for many scientific journals. Dr. Gajjar has made significant contributions to literature and has published his work in several high impact journals. In recognition of his several contributions to Pediatric Oncology Dr Gajjar was awarded the ASCO Pediatric Oncology Award during their recently held annual meeting.
