Faculty, Students Receive Awards at IADR General Session

Dr. Lyndon Cooper, chairman of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Dentistry’s Department of Prosthodontics, was honored for outstanding research within prosthodontics and implantology at the recent International Association for Dental Research’s (IADR) 87th General Session and Exhibition in Miami.

Cooper received the IADR’s 2009 Research in Prosthodontics and Implants Award on April 1. Astra Tech Inc. supports the honor.

Cooper also is the Stallings distinguished professor of dentistry, and director of the graduate prosthodontics program and the bone biology and implant therapy laboratory at the School of Dentistry.

Other faculty members and students also received awards honoring research distinction at the event:

• Dr. Gary Slade, the John W. Stamm distinguished professor in the Department of Dental Ecology, received the Giddon Award for Distinguished Research in the Behavioral Sciences. His paper, titled “Influence of psychological factors on risk of temporomandibular disorders,” was published in 2007 in the Journal of Dental Research. Co-authors are Drs. Luda Diatchenko, Kanokporn Bhalang, Asgeir Sigurdsson, Roger B. Fillingim, Inna Belfer, Mitchell B. Max, David Goldman and William Maixner. This award recognizes a single research paper published or accepted for publication in the current calendar year or in the prior calendar year in the fields of social or cultural anthropology, education, psychology, psychiatry, sociology or social work applied to dentistry.

• Dr. Anne Sanders, an assistant professor in the Department of Dental Ecology, received the William J. Gies Award. Her paper, titled “Does psychological stress mediate social deprivation in tooth loss?”, was published in 2007 in the Journal of Dental Research. Co-authors are Slade, and Drs. Gavin Turrell, John Spencer and Wagner Marcenes.This award is given for the best clinical research paper published in the Journal of Dental Research during the preceding year.

• Sanders received the Aubrey Sheiham Award for Distinguished Research in Dental Public Health Sciences. Her paper, titled “Resilience to urban poverty: theoretical and empirical considerations for population health,” was published in 2008 in the American Journal of Public Health. Co-authors are Sungwoo Lim and Dr. Woosung Sohn. The award recognizes a single research paper published in the current calendar year or the previous calendar year in dental public health.

• Mahshid Bahadoran, a third-year dental student, received second place in the basic science category in the American Association for Dental Research’s (AADR) DENTSPLY/Caulk Student Research Group (SRG) Award Competition. The competition recognizes original research, and Bahadoran’s research abstract is titled “Tooth phenotype of Evc2/Lbn mutant mice during tooth development.”

• Laura Davies-Ludlow, a fourth-year dental student, received the IADR Diagnostic Sciences Group Award. This honor, which comes with a $1,000 cash prize, recognizes the best student abstract presented at a diagnostic systems oral or poster session during the General Session. Davies-Ludlow’s poster was titled “Dosimetry comparison of the NewTom 3G and the NewTom VG.” Her work was supported in part by an AADR GlaxoSmithKline research fellowship, and the award is supported by Imaging Sciences International Inc.

• David Walker, a third-year dental student, received a 2009 AADR Student Research Fellowship; the purpose of this honor is to encourage dental students to consider careers in oral health research.

• Third-year dental students Lauren Rennick and Byron Capps received 2009 AADR Bloc Travel Grants, Grant recipients were selected based on the scientific excellence of the research abstracts they submitted for the event.

“These honors are certainly indicative of the outstanding performance of the students and faculty members engaged in research at our School,” said Dr. James D. Beck, associate dean for research. “These individuals, as well as other UNC participants at IADR, are to be congratulated.”

The IADR, a nonprofit organization of more than 11,300 members worldwide, advances research and knowledge to improve oral health, supports the oral health research community and works to advance communications and the application of research findings to improve oral health worldwide.