Somerman, Director of NIH/NIDCR, to Keynote Annual Dental Research in Review Day
Dr. Martha J. Somerman, director of the National Institute of Health‘s (NIH)National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), will provide the keynote address at this year’s Dental Research in Review Day. The annual event will be held on Wednesday, February 27 in Koury Oral Health Sciences.
This annual event is an opportunity for students, faculty, staff and the public to learn about the School of Dentistry’s research efforts to improve the oral health of all people. The all-day event is open to the public; parking is available in the Dogwood Deck on Manning Drive.
The keynote address will be held at 1:15 p.m. in Kirkland Auditorium. Somerman’s presentation, titled NIH/NIDCR: Advancing Oral Health Through Research, will be approximately an hour long.
Somerman, who also serves as chief of the Laboratory of Oral Connective Tissue Biology at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, is an internationally known researcher and educator. Her research focuses on defining the key regulators controlling development, maintenance and regeneration of oral-dental-craniofacial tissues. Prior to becoming NIDCR’s director, Somerman was dean of the University Of Washington School of Dentistry in Seattle, a position she held from 2002-2011. Before joining the University of Washington, she was on the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Dentistry from 1991-2002 and University of Maryland School of Dentistry from 1984-1990. Somerman holds a D.D.S. from New York University, a master’s degree in environmental health from Hunter College and a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. Her research has earned her numerous honors and awards during her career.
