Dr. Claire Mills and Sydney Kim each took first place in the Graduate Trainee and Dental Predoctoral Oral Presentation competitions respectively at the School of Dentistry Research Day this past Wednesday.
Research Day is the annual celebration of the culmination of research projects from dental students, many of whom participate in the year-long Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) program, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, residents, faculty and staff from the School of Dentistry.
Dr. Mills, who was mentored by Dr. Slobodan Beronja, is a PhD candidate in the Department of Oral Health Sciences’ DDS/PhD program. Her winning presentation was on her study titled “The Role of Field Cancerization in Oral Cancer Progression.”
Kim, a second-year student, completed her study during her time in the SURF program where she was mentored by Dr. Hannele Ruohola-Baker. Her winning project was titled “Dental Regeneration: Engineering a Plasmid to Monitor RNA Gene Expression of Live Cells.”
Dr. Natalia Chalmers, Chief Dental Officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was the Keynote Speaker for Research Day. She gave her speech on “Oral Health: An Evidence and Data-Driven Approach to Achieve Better Health, Equity, and Fiscal Responsibility.” Dr. Chalmers’ speech was followed by three scientific presentations, which were given by Drs. Jasjit Dillon, Bruce Clurman from Fred Hutch, and Gulaiim Almatkyzy.
Dr. Priti Mulimani and Dr. Azeez Fashina took second and third place respectively in the Graduate Trainee competition. Second-year student Kimia Imani and third-year student Teddy Dong, who won first place in the SURF competition the year prior, took second and third place respectively in the Dental Predoctoral competition.
Second-year student Nelson Wong won the Research Advisory Committee Travel Award for the best SURF paper. Second-year student Joshua Lim received the Jack Nicholls Clinical Research Award, and third-year student Mini Lin received the American Academy of Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) Bloc Travel Award.
The award ceremony and presentations were followed with the poster session for students and faculty to view and discuss the work of their peers amongst one another, catered with food and beverage refreshments.
The Omicron Kappa Upsilon (OKU) Dental Honor Society provided cash prizes for the winners of the Dental Student Research Competition. OKU and the Seattle Section of the American Association for Dental and Craniofacial Research were sponsors of Research Day, and the School of Dentistry thanks them for their support.
All photos were taken by first-year dental student Chenchen Su. For more photos from the event, visit the Research Day 2024 Gallery.