BCD students’ work acknowledged at AADR

We are proud of the students at Texas A&M Health Science Center Baylor College of Dentistry; it is especially gratifying when their hard work is recognized on a national scale.

HSC-BCD students were shining ambassadors at the 2010 American Association for Dental Research meeting in March in Washington, D.C.

The HSC-BCD Student Research Group received two student awards – a certificate and check for $300 honoring the most student abstracts accepted to the meeting and a certificate and check for $200 for the most new student members to the AADR.

It is interesting to note that HSC-Baylor College of Dentistry tied with the University of Michigan School of Dentistry for having the most student representatives at the meeting.

“These significant accomplishments would not have taken place without the support of the Baylor Oral Health Foundation and the HSC-BCD administration, Dr. Larry Bellinger, everyone in the Research and Graduate Studies office, and the efforts of our faculty mentors and student researchers,” says Dr. Robert Spears, associate professor of biomedical sciences and director of student research.

DDS/PhD student Anika Voisey, mentored by Dr. Jerry Feng, was awarded second place in the Senior Category. For her award Voisey will be funded by the AADR to present her results at the IADR meeting this July in Barcelona, Spain. Dr. Maria Serrano, mentored by Dr. Kathy Svoboda, was a finalist in the Post-doctoral Category of the prestigious AADR Hatton Awards competition.

In the Basic Sciences Category of the DENTSPLY/Caulk competition, second-year dental student Paul Dyer, mentored by Dr. Kathy Svoboda, was awarded third place, and second-year dental student Karen Liang, mentored by Dr. Robert Spears, was a finalist.

Two HSC-BCD dental students each were awarded a highly competitive AADR Summer Research Fellowship. These were given to DDS/PhD student John Bonds, mentored by Drs. Rena D’Souza and Gabriele Mues, and first-year dental student Ida Khobahy, mentored by Dr. Robert Spears.

Yao Sun, a doctoral student mentored by Dr. Chunlin Qin, and Amatey Wensel, a second-year dental student mentored by Dr. Jerry Feng, received travel awards from the AADR Mineralized Tissue Group.

Third-year dental student Niyati Mehta finished her term as vice president of the AADR National Student Research Group, while second-year dental student Jennifer Lee became the new secretary for the organization.

The American Dental Education Association meeting occurred prior to the AADR meeting. Second-year dental student Andrew Philley gave a poster presentation at that gathering.

For a list of all student participants at the AADR meeting, see the Student Scene section of this issue.