The Pediatric Dentistry Student Group recently completed a service project supported by a $1,000  grant received from the Crest and America’s Toothfairy organizations. 

The dental track of the Summer Health Professions Education Program showcases careers in dentistry for undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds. Since 2017, this highly competitive program has served over 100 students helping to prepare them for dental school and a future career in dentistry. Jonelle Joseph and Hannah Malloy are two graduates of this unique and immersive educational experience, and both have helped with the program over the last two summers.

Azeez Alade, a PhD candidate in genetic epidemiology, specializes in identifying rare genetic factors associated with orofacial clefts in African populations. The IADR and Smile Train awarded Alade $75K to support his dissertation research.

Each year, second-year dental students select faculty and residents for their work as teachers over the course of the D2 curriculum. This year, they selected Nidhi Handoo and Salah Abuhammoud as faculty of the year, and Derrick Bisnett and Veronica Sule as residents of the year.

On June 22, Dean Clark Stanford presented Marcos Vargas, professor in family dentistry, with the 2022 Collegiate Teaching Award. This award recognizes a faculty member who exhibits an “outstanding contribution to dental students’, graduate students’ or residents’ intellectual and professional development.”

At the American Association of Orthodontists Annual Meeting in May, orthodontics residents from the University of Iowa presented orthodontics cases of patients they have treated during their time at Iowa. Since 2014, Iowa has placed well in every such competition, including second place this year.

At the spring meeting on May 27, Adeleke received the award for 2022 Outstanding Dental Researcher. 

Emilio Couso-Queiruga, a resident in periodontics, received the 2022 Mentor of the Year Award by students in the University of Iowa Dental Student Research Group.

Senior Research Achievement Awards are determined based on a portfolio of research that is circulated to a group of 38 electors. The electors select award recipients based on the scientific merit of projects, the significance and productivity of projects, the number of years of involvement in research, the originality of the research, and the student's professional conduct. Award recipients were selected in 2022:  Chichi Adeleke, Sheng Lu, Emily Starman, Kelsey Wenger and Abigail Wieland.

Jason Semprini, a T90 trainee in Iowa Institute of Oral Health Research and a Ph.D. student in the College of Public Health, was awarded a F31 grant—a training grant for mentored dissertation research for his project, Evaluating the Impact of Medicaid Dental Coverage on Early-Stage Oral Cancer Detection.