Building on his February 2020 NIH grant, Azeez Butali, professor in the Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology, and Medicine, was awarded a $133,526 supplemental award to identify the mental health challenges among African mothers and their children affected by orofacial clefts.

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 May 12, 2022, the Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology, and Medicine (OPRM) held their annual student award luncheon. This luncheon is an opportunity to celebrate the successes of OPRM students and to recognize their accomplishments.

Butali serves as a mentor to numerous other students and researchers, and on May 12, he received a Faculty Award recognizing those efforts. Butali’s students shared their appreciation with the Hawkeye Smile for their mentor.

Second-year dental students Frank Boksa and Mary Young have been awarded NIH Summer Dental Student Research Awards to conduct research at the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research in Maryland.

Starting with our first female graduate, Jessie Ritchey, in 1887 and continuing to this day, Iowa has proven itself a trailblazer for women in dentistry. The Class of 2024 is the first in the University of Iowa College of Dentistry’s history to have more female students than male students—helping move the national dentistry workforce closer to gender parity.

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

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.

Emily Lanzel received a grant in collaboration with the University of Chicago to use digital pathology slides to improve machine learning algorithms for use as a tool to evaluate the risk of cancer.

As the course director for the fourth-year Dental Emergency Course, Alberto Gasparoni exemplifies the characteristic features embodied in the James H. and Hermine E. McLeran Faculty Award and the namesakes for the award—a passionate commitment to dental education focused on excellence in teaching and patient-centered care.