Awards, Faculty and Staff, Prosthodontics

Guckes Receives Hunt Award

040902GuckesAlbert Guckes associate professor in the department of prosthodontics, received the school’s most prestigious teaching award, the Richard F. Hunt Excellence in Pre Doctoral Teaching Award, at the annual Spurgeon Banquet at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center April 4, 2002. Recipients of the Hunt award are nominated and selected by students. Nominees are identified using five basic criteria: fostering intellect, demonstrating competence and perspective in all aspects of dentistry, respecting patients and students, preparing superbly for classes, and offering appropriate and timely feedback.

The award is sponsored by the Loblolly Dental Study Club through an endowed fund the club established with the Dental Foundation of North Carolina Inc. The award is given in memory of Dr. Richard F. Hunt, a member of the Class of 1955 who died in South America in a plane crash in 1968. Hunt’s son Richard, a 1989 graduate of the school, practices dentistry with his wife Amy in Rocky Mount, N.C. The award has a cash award of $1,500.

In presenting the award, Dean John Stamm read excerpts from the student nominations “Dr. Guckes is ‘ patient, kind and always willing to help a student in need. He treats all students equally, as colleagues, with respect and understanding. He is astoundingly good at what he does and is an excellent, caring educator who is always working to improve teaching materials. You can tell that he loves his job, teaching students.'”

Guckes received a DDS degree from Temple University and a master’s in prosthodontics from the University of Washington. Before coming to Chapel Hill he was chief of Patient Care and Clinical Studies Section at the National Institutes of Dental Research.

At UNC he was director of the prosthodontics graduate program from 1994-98.