Stacey HudsonWelcome, Freshmen!
The 96 members of the DCG Class of 2024 began their journey on July 1. The freshman class was chosen from 852 verified applicants. The class, 87 of whom are from Georgia, consists of 55 women and 41 men with a median age of 24. They come from 35 colleges and universities and represent 17 different majors. Five have master’s degrees, and the class has the highest number of professional scholars — eight — of any DCG class in history. The students’ lab coats, donated by Bien-Air Dental, were distributed, along with their new electric handpieces, on July 8. Welcome, Class of 2024!
New Residents
Thirty-two new residents and three interns were welcomed into the DCG family on July 1 with a virtual orientation. The new residents come from 15 states, including Georgia. One comes from Europe. They represent 15 dental schools and graduated between 2013-20. Three joined following active-duty military service commitments. Welcome, residents and interns!
Mask Donations
Makers & Creators of the CSRA, a volunteer group formed in March 2020 to make masks and donate supplies to health care professionals in the Augusta area, donated 130 masks to the DCG. The masks, made from Halyard material, can be sterilized and reused. The organization made over 8,100 masks for the community to date. Other volunteers made masks for the DCG as well, including Lizzy Snyder, Dr. Jan Mitchell’s daughter and a research assistant in the Medical College of Georgia Department of Physiology, who sewed over 30 in lavender, the color of dentistry. The other volunteers are Anita Hayman, Dr. Melissa Hunt, Erika King, Janet Mackert, Karen Knoernschild and Raquel Williams.
Travel Award
Dr. Malmoud Elashiry, a resident and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Periodontics, received a 2020 Colgate Research in Prevention Travel Award sponsored by the International Association for Dental Research. Only six are awarded annually worldwide, supporting research in the prevention of oral diseases and enabling award recipients to present their findings to the international dental and oral health research communities. Elashiry is researching ways to prevent oral degenerative bone disease.
Vision Research
Dr. Amany Tawflik, associate professor in the Department of Oral Biology and Diagnostic Sciences, received an approximately $3 million Core Grant for Vision Research from the National Institutes of Health. The principal investigator is Dr. Sylvia Smith, chair of the MCG Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy. Dr. Tawflik and her MCG colleagues also received an approximately $800,000 NIH student training grant through the Program for Aging Research in the Summer.
Video Created
Dr. Martha Brackett, director of the Operative Dentistry Section of Restorative Sciences, created a video message acknowledging the contributions of her dedicated faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic. The video, chronicling the extraordinary amount of effort and dedication involved in adapting to a post-COVID world, can be viewed at https://youtu.be/RUOIuYxQpfQ.
