Chris Barwacz, associate professor in the Department of Family Dentistry, was named the Department Executive Officer of Family Dentistry in June 2021.

Trishul Allareddy, professor in the Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology, and Medicine, was named the Department Executive Officer of his department in 2021.

Lina Moreno (’05 PhD, ’08 ORTHS), associate professor in the Department of Orthodontics, was named the Department Executive Officer of her department.

The University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics hosted a Give Kids A Smile event on Friday night, February 25, at the Iowa Children’s Museum in the Coral Ridge Mall. Thirty-two children received free oral health education, dental screenings, fluoride treatments, and they took home bags of oral hygiene supplies.

A Japanese dental materials and equipment manufacturer awarded Akimasa Tsujimoto, associate professor of Operative Dentistry, an $18,000 grant for his project evaluating the bonding performance of newly developed self-adhesive resin luting cement which can be used with or without a universal adhesive to various substrates. The aim is to determine whether this resin luting cement can improve the durability of dental esthetic restorations.

Susan C. McKernan, Julie C. Reynolds, Brooke McInroy and Peter C. Damiano, Journal of Public Health Dentistry, 2022

The University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics is a national leader in NIDCR research funding, dental education research, and the amount of patient care experiences that dental students receive.

Sukirth Ganesan and his team are using a multi -omics approach to study the relationship between periodontal disease and metabolic syndrome. The National Institutes of Health awarded them a R03 grant for over $300,000 for this project. The project will determine the precise relationship between these conditions, which could help prevent disease or provide early indicators of disease and possible avenues for treatment at an early stage of the condition.

L. Bodine Higley (’26 DDS) graduated with a D.D.S. from Iowa in 1926, he was promptly hired by the college to assist with predoctoral clinical teaching and developing a new orthodontics graduate program. He also developed ground-breaking research with the Iowa Facial Growth Study.

The nonprofit organization, Smile Train, awarded Iowa professor Azeez Butali a $40,000 grant to study the genetic causes of cleft lip and palate among the Zulu population in South Africa. Butali is an internationally recognized expert in the genetics of cleft lip and palate, particularly among African populations. Butali is working with Thriona Naicker, a trained Medical Geneticist and PhD student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Butali serves as Naicker’s mentor for his dissertation research.