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Six members from the Faculty of Dentistry, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) were recipients of awards or fellowships at the 99th General Session & Exhibition of International Association for Dental Research (IADR). Due to COVID19, the award presentation ceremony was held virtually on July 21, 2021.

IADR is the world’s largest association of dental researchers with over 10,000 members worldwide.

The awardees from the Faculty of Dentistry:

IADR E.W. Borrow Memorial Award
Professor Edward Lo, Chair Professor in Dental Public Health
Professor Edward Lo received the prestigious IADR E.W. Borrow Memorial Award in recognition of his contributions and research achievement in the promotion of children’s oral health. In the past 33 years, Professor Lo has conducted many oral epidemiological studies and clinical trials on children’s oral health in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

He developed with evidence-based approaches a novel method for treating tooth decay by using topical fluorides and atraumatic restorative treatment to prevent and control dental caries in children, which has been adopted by the World Health Organization and dental professional organisations worldwide.

“With over 300 peer-reviewed publications and 68 research and project grants to his name, Lo is a distinguished dental researcher, educator and public health worker. He has contributed significantly to the development of various innovative and effective approaches in the prevention and treatment of dental caries in children, the training of many dental public health experts who are current leaders in the field and the implementation of outreach dental care service programs for children,” said IADR in its press release.

IADR Distinguished Scientist H. Trendley Dean Memorial Award
Professor May Wong, Professor in Dental Public Health
The IADR Distinguished Scientist H. Trendley Dean Memorial Award is one of the highest honours bestowed by the IADR to commend investigators with meritorious research in epidemiology and public health. Over the past two decades, Professor May Wong has committed to promoting dental public health by conducting major oral epidemiological studies in Hong Kong and Mainland China. She is among the pioneers who introduced the use of multi-level statistics to analyse the hierarchically structured oral epidemiological data. She is also one of the early researchers who studied oral health-related quality of life and promoted the use of well-conducted systematic reviews to generate high-quality evidence to guide clinical practice in dentistry.

IADR Innovation in Oral Care Award
Dr Prasanna Neelakantan, Clinical Assistant Professor in Endodontology
Dr Prasanna Neelakantan is one of the three recipients of the IADR Innovation in Oral Care Award which offers outstanding researchers in the field the opportunity to perform direct and high impact dental research with translational potential. Dr Neelakantan  aims to develop an innovative strategy employing advanced biomaterials to tackle oral fungal infections which is an extremely common and devastating disease in the elderly and immunocompromised patients.

Other awardees from the Faculty of Dentistry:

Dr Mohammed Zahedul Islam Nizami, Postdoctoral Fellow in Restorative Dental Science -  AADR/IADR William J. Gies Award in Biomaterials & Bioengineering

Dr Ting Zou, Postdoctoral Fellow in Restorative Dental Science - IADR Toshio Nakao Fellowship

Dr John Niu, PhD student - IADR Colgate Research in Prevention Travel Award

In addition, Professor Michael Botelho, Clinical Professor in Prosthodontics and Dr Duangporn Duangthip, Clinical Assistant Professor in Cariology, have been appointed as Vice Presidents of the Dental Education Group and the Pediatric Oral Health Research Group of the IADR, respectively, starting from July 2021. Professor Botelho will support young educational researchers and guide their pathway, while Dr Duangthip will give advice to bring positive impact on children's oral health.

For more information on IADR, please visit:  https://www.iadr.org/

Media Enquiry:
Ms Melody Tang, Senior Communications Officer, Faculty of Dentistry, HKU
Tel: 2859 0494 / 9155 0980 / Email: melodytang@hku.hk