Awards & Honors

Robert P. Marlin, MD, Honored by the Massachusetts Medical Society

Robert P. Marlin, MD, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of general internal medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, has been honored with the 2026 Henry Ingersoll Bowditch Award for Excellence in Public Health from the Massachusetts Medical Society. The award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Massachusetts physician who has demonstrated outstanding initiative, creativity and leadership in the field of public health outreach and advocacy.

The award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Massachusetts physician who has demonstrated outstanding initiative, creativity and leadership in the field of public health outreach and advocacy.

Marlin, a board-certified primary care internist at Boston Medical Center (BMC), also serves as director of policy for the Immigrant and Refugee Health Center, as program director for the Preventive Medicine Residency, and as a core faculty member for the Immigrant and Refugee Health Fellowship program at BMC.

Marlin has worked for the past 20 years to design and build multidisciplinary, community-informed, patient-centered healthcare programs focused on the needs of forced migrants, including immigrants, refugees, and torture survivors. His research interests include the role of state policy in the health outcomes of forced migrants and the role of language access in health outcomes of patients who prefer to use a language other than English in healthcare settings.

He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health and the Journal of Health Care for Poor and Underserved and as special advisor for Healthcare Workforce Development to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. In addition, he continues to mentor students, residents and peer faculty, providing clinical, career and research advising.

Marlin completed his medical school training at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine and his residency in Internal Medicine at the Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. He received his PhD in anthropology from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and his MPH in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In addition, he completed the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at Harvard Medical School.

 The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) is the statewide professional association for physicians and medical students, supporting 23,000 members. They are dedicated to educating and advocating for the physicians of Massachusetts and patients locally and nationally. A leadership voice in health care, the MMS contributes physician and patient perspectives to influence health-related legislation at the state and federal levels, works in support of public health, provides expert advice on physician practice management, and addresses issues of physician wellbeing.