This past March, all eyes in the dental world were on New Orleans, LA as the city hosted both the IADR/AADOCR/CADR General Session & Exhibition and the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Annual Session & Exhibition.
The School of Dentistry as a whole was well represented, with many members of leadership, alumni, friends and students flying in to give presentations, cheer on award winners, and attend both the UW School of Dentistry reception and the DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health reception.
At each respective event, third-year students Teddy Dong and Min Lin were presented with national awards, selected from pools of representatives of dental schools all across the country and world.
Dong was awarded third place in the Dentsply Sirona AADOCR Student Competition for Advancing Dental Research and its Application (SCADA) Clinical Science/Public Health Research category. The SCADA competition is an annual student research competition inviting only one top student researcher from each U.S. and selected international dental schools.
“The amount of talent in the competition was through the roof, and I was honored to represent the UW and shine some international recognition on our school,” said Dong who is the first student from the UW School of Dentistry to place in the top three of the SCADA competition. More on Dong’s award.
Lin was selected from a national pool of applicants as one of 12 students to receive the ADEA/Haleon Preventive Dentistry Scholarship. The scholarship supports predoctoral dental students who have demonstrated academic excellence in preventive dentistry.
“I hope my success can encourage more dental students from our school to apply for different awards, scholarships, and opportunities out there in the future,” said Lin. “I am increasingly convinced that life holds numerous unexpected surprises, as long as you are open to embracing new challenges.” More on Lin’s award.
A combination of faculty, students, and staff made up for a total of 27 presenters at IADR 2024. Presentations included: Dr. Sami Dogan on his current enamel-building dental lozenge project, DDS/PhD student Dr. Claire Mills on her field cancerization assessment project which won first place at this year’s School of Dentistry Research Day, and Dr. Jeffrey McLean on he and Dr. Kristopher Kern’s project assessing inflammation in the oral microbiome.
The School of Dentistry’s research reception was held on Thursday, March 14. Dean André Ritter and Associate Dean for Research Dr. Donald Chi hosted the event, which had over 75 attendees. Assistant Dean of Advancement Randy Newquist also welcomed guests, who all together made for a vibrant gathering of UW friends and alumni from all over the country and world.
The Timothy A. DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health held a reception dinner on the evening of Tuesday, March 12 at Mulate’s Restaurant in New Orleans. Colleagues from around the world attended, including from partner sites in Thailand, Peru and Kenya, as well as Dr. DeRouen himself. The Center had its work over the past year presented at IADR by Dr. Arthur Kemoli from the University of Nairobi and fourth-year dental student Bita Fathipour.
Dr. Amy Kim and Dr. Hai Zhang both graduated from the ADEA Leadership Institute, a yearlong program designed to develop the most promising individuals at academic dental institutions to become future leaders in dental and higher education. Dean Ritter joined them at the commencement event to celebrate each of their achievements.