Dr. Shayan Niaki honored as the 2024 Wands Fellow
Dr. Shayan Niaki, a second-year prosthodontics resident, has been selected as the 16th recipient of the David H. Wands Fellowship in Graduate Prosthodontics.
The Wands Fellowship is the most prestigious endowed graduate fellowship in dentistry at the University of Washington and one of the largest private endowments awarded through any graduate prosthodontics program in the country.
Established by Dr. David Wands, who graduated from the program in 1972, the intent of the fellowship is to support and inspire its recipients to pursue an academic career, either full or part-time, in prosthodontic education.
“Dr. Niaki was chosen because he displays the superlative characteristics of a Wands Fellow, namely honesty, integrity, selfless service, and a desire to teach and disseminate prosthodontic knowledge,” said Dr. Van Ramos, Director of the Graduate Prosthodontics program.
Hailing from Southern California, Dr. Niaki made a big life change when he decided to move across the country to attend the New York University College of Dentistry for his Doctor of Dental Surgery. During his time at NYU, he discovered that he was interested in pursuing a specialty.
“My friends and mentors encouraged me to believe that if you love doing something, try to pursue a specialty in that,” said Dr. Niaki. After graduation, he went on to participate in the one-year Advanced Education in General Dentistry at his undergraduate alma mater, UCLA. While there, he participated in general residency training, followed by two years of general dentistry in private practice in Los Angeles.
“I realized at that time I wanted to improve my knowledge and pursue prosthodontics,” Dr. Niaki said. “I felt that I was at a point in my career where I was not going to improve dramatically by just treating patients and learning from those experiences. I thought that would put me on too long of a trajectory to be able to reach the end goal I had in mind.”
The desire to learn led Dr. Niaki to the UW School of Dentistry’s Graduate Prosthodontics program, where he is now focused on not only learning as much as he can but learning how to teach others as well.
“Dr. Ramos always tells us, ‘practicing prosthodontics and teaching prosthodontics are two different things,’” said Dr. Niaki. “With everything turning more digital going into the future, my goal will be to help the next generation of prosthodontists understand the foundations, because without having those understandings, you may not be able to use the digital aids.”
Dr. Niaki says he plans to use the fellowship support to help him acquire his own set of specialized instruments to be able to carry with him for the span of his career, as well as to help pay for the travel costs of attending prosthodontics meetings.
Dr. Wands established his Fellowship in 1999 as a genuine appreciation for the excellent quality of the graduate prosthodontic education he received at the UW. His professional reputation is a direct result of the education he received from caring UW prosthodontic mentors who stimulated his desire to give back to the prosthodontic program in many ways.
The Fellowship provides funding to support outstanding scholars and clinicians who have demonstrated the highest standards of moral character and are committed to clinical excellence, compassionate patient care, and outstanding scholarship, which will motivate discovery and innovation in the prosthodontics specialty.
Dr. Wands recently was awarded Affiliate Professor in the UW Department of Restorative Dentistry, and is a Life Member of the Academy of Prosthodontics and Pacific Coast Society for Prosthodontics. He retired from his Olympia private prosthodontic practice in 1992 and enjoys retirement as a master gardener and devoted saltwater and freshwater angler.