IADR PRESS RELEASES

Alexandria, Va., USA - The International Association for Dental Research (IADR), with Unilever, today announced the creation of the "IADR Unilever Social Entrepreneur Approach to Change Oral Health Behavior Research Award." This is an IADR award with funding provided exclusively by Unilever.

Alexandria, Va., USA - The American Association for Dental Research (AADR), with the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), today announced that AADR will provide $75,000 funding to support one dental student competitively selected to participate in the 2014-2015 NIH Medical Research Scholars Program (MRSP). The MRSP is designed to train the most promising future dentists, physicians and veterinarians in research so that they can help resolve clinical problems by understanding their biological underpinnings and, conversely, by translating basic research into clinical interventions. Scholars accepted into the MRSP are provided with a year-long, highly competitive research training experience, designed to inspire research careers.

Mary Walker, D.D.S., Ph.D., is associate dean for research and graduate programs and professor in the departments of oral and craniofacial sciences and restorative dentistry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Dentistry. She was previously a faculty member at the University of Nebraska College of Dentistry. Prior to her academic career, Walker owned a solo general dentistry practice.

Walker received a D.D.S. from the University of Nebraska College of Dentistry, and a prosthodontics certificate and Ph.D. in oral biology from UMKC as a trainee supported by an NIH/NIDCR-sponsored T32 grant. She has been involved in translational and clinical research related to mineralized tooth structure and biomaterials. Besides clinically relevant evaluations of various dental materials, another current investigation (NIH/NIDCR R01) is focused on the effects of oral cancer radiotherapy on the dentition.