Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series

The Office of Research encourages all college departments to participate in the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series, providing up to $2,000* in funding to assist with the speaker’s honorarium and travel expenses.

Requesting a Speaker

All UFCD Faculty, Students and Staff are eligible to nominate a speaker. Requests for speaker approval must be submitted to Denise Webb, Office of Research, with a letter addressing the required criteria below and including the following information and attachment(s):

1. The scientific expertise of the speaker and relevance to programs at the College of Dentistry
2. Proposed title for the seminar
3. Brief description of the topics to be covered
4. Brief description of the target audience
5. Proposed date for the seminar
6. A current CV for the speaker

The request is forwarded to the UFCD Research Committee for review and approval; although, approval may be granted by the Associate Dean for Research without review. No more than two speakers will be scheduled in a month or approved for a given faculty member sponsor in a one year period.

Selection Criteria

1. The speaker should be nationally or internationally recognized for their research achievements.
2. The speaker and topic should enhance the UFCD research mission and be of interest to a diverse audience. Interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary topics are strongly encouraged.
3. Overlap or redundancy with recent speakers supported by this mechanism will be considered in the evaluation of requests, as will the commitment of matching funds from centers or departments.

Continuing Education

As part of the UFCD mission of service to the dental community, Continuing Dental Education (CDE) credit may be offered at no charge, to both the speaker and the attendees of the Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series. To comply with ADA CERP guidelines for issuing CDE credit, the request for C.E. credit must be included with the items identified in the previous section:
1. Seminar Description (2-3 paragraphs)
2. Seminar Objectives (3-4 learning objectives)

*Funding:  The office of research will provide up to $2,000 for a speaker’s (limited to $600.00 honorarium) and travel expenses related to hotel and airfare costs.  

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO SCHEDULE A SPEAKER, CONTACT THE UFCD OFFICE OF RESEARCH AT 352-294-5440.


2023 Lectures

DateSpeaker, Topic, & Sponsors
May 18 Dr. Bruno Lima, DDS, Ph.D, University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, Department of Diagnostic and Biological Sciences. “Investigating Streptococcus gordonii surface protein regulation and biofilm formation”.
October 2Dr. David Giedroc, Ph.D, Indiana University Bloomington, Department of Chemistry. “Metabolic adaptation to transition metal starvation from bacteria to man”.
October 25Dr. Jason Griggs, Ph.D, University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Dentistry. “Optimizing the design of dental implants using Artificial Intelligence”.

Previous Lecture Series