Recognition and awards received in 2009

The following representatives of the HKU Faculty of Dentistry won four research prizes at the 87th General Session and Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), held in Miami, Florida, USA, from 1 to 4 April 2009:

• Dr Mahendra Perera (PhD student) won two awards: the 2009 IADR / Lion Dental Research Award, for the most outstanding and innovative research in Microbiology/Immunology, and the IADR/Colgate Research in Prevention Travel Award. His presentation, "Highly active antiretroviral therapy influences oral chemokine and cytokine profiles", was based on his current PhD research, supervised by Dr Peter Tsang, Professor Anne McMillan, and Professor Lakshman Samaranayake.

• Dr Jayampath Seneviratne (Postdoctoral Fellow) won the 2009 IADR / Unilever Hatton Divisional Award (senior category), South East Asia division, for a presentation titled "Systems biology tools reveal antifungal mechanism/s of Candida glabrata biofilm", which was based on his PhD research, supervised by Professor Lakshman Samaranayake and Professor Li-jian Jin.

• Mr Tommy Fung and Mr Kevin Chan (BDS V students) won the 2009 IADR / Unilever Hatton Divisional Award (junior category), South East Asia division, for a presentation titled "Oral health disparities among low-income families in Hong Kong". Their findings came from their BDS Community Health Project, which was supervised by Professor Colman McGrath.

Dr Lei Chai (PhD 2008), together with Dr You-qiang Song, Dr Kwan-yat Zee, and Dr W Keung Leung, won the Best Poster Award at the Hong Kong Society for Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting on 18 April 2009, with a poster titled "Single nucleotide polymorphisms of complement component 5 and periodontitis".

Dr Susan Bridges (Assistant Professor in Dental Education and E-Learning) has been named runner-up for the International Award for Excellence in the World Universities field by the Journal of the World Universities Forum, for a paper titled "Global academic movement: wandering scholars or tradable commodities?", co-authored with Dr Brendan Bartlett.

Dr Susan Bridges (Assistant Professor in Dental Education and E-Learning) has been awarded an HKU Teaching Development Grant for HK$518,675 to support a project titled "Blended learning and interactive pedagogies: supporting problem-based learning in dental education". Her co-investigators are Dr John Dyson, Dr Peter CS Tsang, Prof Colman McGrath, Dr Cynthia KY Yiu, Dr Kevin HK Yip, and Dr Michael Botelho (2008 Chairpersons of the BDS Problem Development Groups).

Professor Nigel M King (Professor in Paediatric Dentistry), together with Professor Anut Itthagarun (formerly Associate Professor in Paediatric Dentistry) and Dr Naveen Kumar (formerly postgraduate student) have been selected as winners of an Award of Excellence in the Scientific Article Category by the Australian Dental Journal, for the most outstanding scientific paper published in the journal during 2008. (Kumar VL, Itthagarun A, King NM. The effect of casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate on remineralization of artificial caries-like lesions: an in vitro study. Aust Dent J 2008;53:34-40) Professor King has recently been elected as the President of the Australasian Academy of Paediatric Dentistry.

Professor Lim-kwong Cheung (Chair Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery) and Dr Li-wu Zheng (Postdoctoral Fellow in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery) have won the Best Original Article Award 2007, Hong Kong Dental Journal (HKDJ) and will be presented with the prize at an awards ceremony on 8 February 2009. Their paper, titled "Effect of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 on mandibular distraction osteogenesis", was published in Volume 4, No. 2. of the HKDJ.

Dr Jukka Matinlinna (Associate Professor in Dental Materials Science) has been appointed as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology (JAST), starting from 1 January 2009 (journal website: http://www.brill.nl/jast).

Dr Lei Mei (PhD student) won the Best Poster Presentation Award at the 31st Asia-Pacific Dental Congress, Hong Kong, 7-11 May 2009, for a poster titled "Interaction of multi-species cariogenic biofilm on artificial dentin caries lesion", co-authored with Dr HK Yip, Dr CJ Seneviratne, Dr CH Chu (primary supervisor), and Professor ECM Lo (co-supervisor).

Dr Chun-hung Chu (Associate Professor in Comprehensive Dental Care) won the Best Oral Presentation Award at the 31st Asia-Pacific Dental Congress, Hong Kong, 7-11 May 2009, for a presentation titled "Occlusion and orthodontic treatment demand amongst young Chinese adults in Hong Kong", co-authored with Dr HB Choy and Professor ECM Lo.

Recognition and awards received in 2008

Dr Mike YY Leung (Advanced Diploma student in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery) won the Gold Medal for the Best Original Research by Trainees at a recent conference held by the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. His presentation was based on research done during his Master of Dental Surgery degree, under the supervision of Professor Lim K Cheung.

Ms Polly PL Fung (BDS V student) received a 5th National Youth Science and Technology Award on 5 December 2008 in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, in recognition of her academic record and a research project titled "Detection of tooth demineralization by two recent advanced technologies", performed under the supervision of Professor Edward Lo and Dr Thomas Li.

Dr Kevin Yip has received an Applied Research Grant in Discovery from Johnson and Johnson, USA, to support his research project "Microbiota in saliva and dental plaque from healthy and coronary artery disease patients". The US$31,820 applied research grant will be shared with research collaborators in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Singapore, with Dr Duncan Yu from Johnson and Johnson acting as the team coordinator in Singapore.

Dr Winnie Choi Wing Shan (Advanced Diploma student in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery) was awarded an Oral Abstract Scientific Presentation Award at the 90th Annual Meeting, Scientific Sessions and Exhibition of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, held in Seattle, USA, on 16-20 September 2008 in conjunction with the Chinese Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Her abstract was titled "The effect of tranexamic acid on blood loss during orthognathic surgery: a randomized controlled trial". Her co-authors were Professor Nabil Samman, Professor in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the HKU Faculty of Dentistry and Dr Michael G Irwin, Head of the Department of Anaesthesiology at the HKU Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine.

Dr Andrew Ow (PhD student) was awarded an Outstanding Poster Presentation Award at the 90th Annual Meeting, Scientific Sessions and Exhibition of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, held in Seattle, USA, on 16-20 September 2008 in conjunction with the Chinese Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. His presentation, titled "Bilateral sagittal split osteotomies versus mandibular distraction osteogenesis: which is better?" was co-authored by Professor Lim K Cheung, Chair Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

Professor Edward Lo (Professor in Dental Public Health) was awarded a grant of HK$1.33 million by the SK Yee Medical Foundation in October 2008, to provide a community dental service for various disadvantaged groups in Hong Kong. The other project members are Dr John Dyson (Associate Professor in Oral Rehabilitation) and Dr Chun-hung Chu (Associate Professor in Family Dentistry).

Dr Chun-hung Chu (Associate Professor in Family Dentistry) received a HK$300,000 grant from the HKSAR Health Care and Promotion Fund under the Seed Funding Scheme in October 2008, to run an outreach programme providing preventive dental care services to kindergarten children. The other project member is Professor Edward Lo (Professor in Dental Public Health).

The following staff members were elected to various posts in the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) in July 2008:

Professor Lakshman Samaranayake, Chair, IADR Awards Review Committee, and President, Oral Medicine and Pathology Scientific Group; Professor Anne McMillan, Member, IADR Constitution Committee; Professor Colman McGrath, Councilor, Behavioral, Epidemiologic and Health Services Research Scientific Group. In addition, Professor Li-jian Jin was recently appointed as Councilor, IADR South-East Asia Division.

The following Faculty staff and students received research prizes at the 22nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Association for Dental Research, South-East Asia Division (IADR/SEA), held in October 2008 in Manila, Philippines:

• IADR/SEA Travel Awards:
  • Junior category - Mr Kok-chu Fung (BDS Group 5.6; community health project supervised by Professor Colman McGrath)
  • Senior category - Dr CJ Seneviratne (Postdoctoral Fellow; PhD project supervised by Professor Lakshman Samaranayake and Professor Li-jian Jin)
• IADR/SEA Best Paper Awards:
  1. "Behavioral Science and Health Service Research" category - Miss Yuk-man Lee (BDS Group 5.3; community health project supervised by Dr CH Chu)
  2. "Cariology and Mineralized Tissues" category - Dr Qing-hui Zhi (PhD student supervised by Professor Edward Lo, Dr Anut Itthagarun, and Dr HC Lin)
  3. "Dental Materials (Laboratory Research and Clinical Research)" category - Dr Cynthia Yiu (Associate Professor in Paediatric Dentistry)

Mr Bernard Liang (BDS Group 5.5) was the first runner-up (2nd place) in the Dentsply Student Table Clinician Competition at the 19th Annual Meeting of the South-East Asia Association for Dental Education, held in October 2008 in Manila, Philippines.

Dr Li-wu Zheng, Postdoctoral Fellow in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, has been awarded CHF114,200 (about HK$835,000) by the AO Research Fund of the AO Foundation (Switzerland) to conduct the research project "Shall We Rewrite the Distraction Protocol for Continuous Distraction Osteogenesis?" His co-researcher is Professor Lim-kwong Cheung, Chair Professor in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

Professor Lim-kwong Cheung, Chair Professor in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Dentistry, a new peer-reviewed open access journal (website, <www.hindawi.com/journals/ijd>).

Dr Kevin HK Yip (Associate Professor in Family Dentistry) has been presented with a 2008 Listerine Research Award by Johnson and Johnson to conduct a research project titled 'The role of cariogenic bacteria of oral biofilm in coronary heart disease' Co-holders of this US$31,820 award are co-researchers Professor Herbert HP Fang, Department of Civil Engineering, HKU Faculty of Engineering; Professor Hui Chen, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontics, School of Stomatology, Zhejiang University; and Professor Jianhua Zhu, Department of Internal Cardiology, Zhejiang University.

Mr Sam Hui (staff of Dental Media Unit), who has been studying part-time on multi-media design in a master degree course of Middlesex University, has completed a research project on e-learning for post-graduate dental continuing education under the supervision of Mr Raymond Fok (Senior Lecturer and Program Leader, Middlesex University) and Professor L.K. Cheung (Professor in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery). Mr Hui has been awarded distinction for his Master of Art degree on "Work Based Learning Studies (Multimedia Design and Project Management)". He was also subsequently awarded with the "Gerry Fowler Prize for Excellence" for his outstanding achievement.

Professor Lim-kwong Cheung (Professor in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery), Dr Rory Watt (Assistant Professor in Oral Biosciences), Dr Kevin Yip (Associate Professor in Family Dentistry) and Dr Katherine Leung (Assistant Professor in Oral Rehabilitation) won GRF 2008-2009 awards from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council in July 2008.

Dr Jayampath Seneviratne (2006 PhD student) was awarded "IADR/Colgate Research in Prevention Travel Award" at the International Association for Dental Research Scientific Meeting, Toronto, Canada, July 2008. His supervisor is Professor L.P. Samaranayake.

Professor Urban Hägg, (Chair Professor in Orthodontics), and co-investigators Dr Ricky Wong (Associate Professor in Orthodontics), Professor Lakshman Samaranayake (Dean and Chair Professor in Microbiology), Dr Richard Kao (Assistant Professor in Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine), and Dr Michelle Yuen (Master of Orthodontics student) are recipients of one of the "2008 IADR/GSK Innovation in Oral Care Award" (US$75,000) for the research on "A Natural Edible Agent for Reduction of Oral Biofilm" which recognizes innovative technologies that can be used routinely by the public to maintain and improve oral health and quality of life. The award was presented at the International Association of Dental Research Scientific Meeting, Toronto, Canada in July 2008.

Dr May CM Wong (Associate Professor in Dental Public Health) has been appointed as an Associate Editor of the journal Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.

Professor Edward CM Lo (Professor in Dental Public Health) has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Dental Research, the official journal of the International Association for Dental Research.

Professor Lim-kwong Cheung and Dr Qian-feng Li won Outstanding Oral Presentation Awards at The University of Hong Kong and Wuhan University Inaugural Conjoint Dental Scientific Meeting, 10-11 May 2008, Dongguan, China.

Dr Chun-hung Chu and Dr Qian Lu won Outstanding Poster Presentation Awards at The University of Hong Kong and Wuhan University Inaugural Conjoint Dental Scientific Meeting, 10-11 May 2008, Dongguan, China.

Professor Tak-wah Chow (Professor in Family Dentistry) and Mr Raymond TC Leung (Audiovisual Officer) were honoured by The University of Hong Kong for 25 and 35 years of service, respectively, at the HKU Long Service Awards Ceremony on 6 May 2008.

Professor Urban Hägg (Chair Professor of Orthodontics) was elected as Vice President of the Asian-Pacific Orthodontic Society at the 6th Asian-Pacific Orthodontic Conference held in Bangkok, Tahiland, in March 2008.

Dr Ricky Wong (Associate Professor in Orthodontics) has been awarded the Faculty Research Output Prize 2008 in recognition of research excellence in the form of an article co-authored with Professor Bakr Rabie (Professor in Orthodontics) titled "Effect of puerarin on bone formation", which was published in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage in 2007.

Professor Urban Hägg, Chair in Orthodontics, has successfully completed the admission requirements, and been admitted at a regular member of Edward H Angle Society of Orthodontists (USA) in March 2008.

Dr Ricky Wong, Associate Professor in Orthodontics, has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Consumer Health Informatics.