Ostrow Dean Emeritus and Professor Harold Slavkin ’61, DDS ’65 has been named the 2016 Gies Award winner for Outstanding Vision by a Dental Educator.

Ostrow Dean Emeritus and Professor Harold Slavkin ’61, DDS ’65 has been named the 2016 Gies Award winner for Outstanding Vision by a Dental Educator.

It’s the first time an Ostrow faculty member has earned one of the William J. Gies Awards for Vision, Innovation and Achievement — the preeminent recognition of exception contributions to and in support of oral health and education, according to the ADEA website.

“Our profession is constantly seeking new ways to educate students and to discover the best opportunities to meet the oral health needs of the public,” said Richard W. Valachovic, president of the ADEAGies Foundation and ADEA president and chief executive officer, in a press statement. “The Gies Awards allow us to stop and say thank you to the men and women who push for excellence in these critical areas.”

Honorees are selected by a distinguished panel of judges consisting of the ADEAGies Foundation Board of Trustees.

Slavkin first joined the Ostrow faculty in 1968. His passion for scientific inquiry was instrumental in sharpening Ostrow’s focus on research. Today it is the top funded private institution in terms of NIDCR federal research grant dollars.

Slavkin created USC’s Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology in 1989, served as dental school dean from 2000 to 2008 and was director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research from 1995 to 2000. In 2014, Slavkin retired from the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC.

Slavkin will officially receive his award on March 14 as part of the 2016 ADEA Annual Session and Exhibition, taking place in Denver, Col. from March 12 to March 15, 2016.