Council on Scientific Affairs
Richard Kulbersh, D.D.S., M.S.

The Council on Scientific Affairs met on January 11, 2004, in St. Louis, Missouri. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Ravindra Nanda, with Dr. John Buzzatto serving as trustee liaison and Ms. Celia Giltinan, staff liaison. Additional constituency representatives were Jeryl English, Sunil Kapila, Richard Kulbersh, Steven Lindauer, Hyun-Duck Nah, Larry Oesterle, Thomas Southard, and David Turpin.

Twenty-two entries were received for research award consideration. Six research prizes were awarded: the Milo Hellman, the Harry Sicher First Research Award, and four Awards of Special Merit. A listing of the six awards and recipients follows:

1) 2003 Milo Hellman Research Award Recipient, Dr. Douglas Singleton, Baylor College of Dentistry, Dallas, Texas, for his paper “Craniofacial Growth in Growth Hormone-Deficient Rats Following Growth Hormone Supplementation”;

2) 2003 Harry Sicher First Research Essay Award Recipient, Dr. Ji Young Lee, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, for his paper “Cell Autonomous Inhibition of Osteoblast Differentiation in Transgenic Mice with Targeted Overexpression of PZOC/EBP-beta, a Truncated C/EBP Isoform”;

3) 2003 Thomas M. Graber Award of Special Merit Recipient,Dr. Todd Bennett, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, for his paper “Characterization of the Dental Phenotype in Transgenic Mice with Col 1A1 Targeted Overexpression of PZOC/EBP-beta”;

4) 2003 Thomas M. Graber Award of Special Merit Recipient, Dr. Lucia H. S. Cevidanes, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for her paper “Mandibular Growth and Response to Orthopedic Therapy in High-Resolution 3D Imaging”;

5) 2003 Thomas M. Graber Award of Special Merit Recipient, Dr. Steven R. Olsburgh, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, for his paper “The Role of Stress Distribution in the Etiology of External Apical Root Resorption in Maxillary Central Incisors with Abnormal Root Shapes: A Three-Dimensional Finite Element Analysis”; and

6) 2003 Thomas M. Graber Award of Special Merit Recipient, Dr. Monisha Gupta Iyer, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for her paper “The Costs and Benefits of Orthodontic Treatment: Patient’s Values in Retrospect Compared to Professional Opinion”.

Council then reviewed applications for Research Oral Abstracts (98 applications—42 selected), Scientific Posterboard Presentations (255 applications—191 selected), and Table Clinic Presentations (73 applications—45 selected) for the Orlando, Florida, meeting.

In addition the Council voted for the following motions to be presented to the Board of Trustees.

1. Drs. Nah, Turpin and Kulbersh agreed to review the Table Clinic exhibits and select the Joseph E. Johnson Award recipients.
2. The proposed COSA budget for 2004-05 was set at the same figure of $16,000 as 2003-04.
3. Regarding the proposed ANSI/ADA Standards for Orthodontic Brackets and Tubes, the Council reviewed the document recommended by Dr. Terry Pracht. It was the consensus of the Council members that the AAO had sufficient representation on the ADA committee not to warrant further comment. Staff was requested to draft a letter to Jerry Horn, Chair of the ADA committee, notifying him that Dr. Nanda would be going off the AAO’s Council and that Dr. Larry Oesterle would replace Dr. Nanda.

Three motions were voted for presentation to the Board of Trustees:

1. That the monetary award for the Resident Clinician Scholars Program not exceed that of the Milo Hellman and Harry Sicher Awards, and further that the request for applications for the Resident Clinician Scholars Program, review of submissions and judging of the table clinics be managed by COSA.
2. That Dr. W. Eugene Roberts be nominated by AAO for the ADA Gold Medal Award of Excellence in Dental Research.
3. That in order to place more emphasis on the Graber Awards, only one of the four research awards of merit be in his name.

The next COSA meeting is scheduled for January 9, 2005. I look forward to representing the GLAO constituency at that time.