Dentsply Sirona and the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) announced the winners of the 2026 Student Competition for Advancing Dental Research and its Application (SCADA) Awards. The winners were recognized during the 55th Annual Meeting of AADOCR, held in conjunction with the 104th General Session & Exhibition of the IADR and the 50th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research (CADR), March 25 to 28, 2026, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California.
The 2026 competition included 61 dental students from across the United States and seven international finalists from Canada, France, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. “Since its conception in 1959, Dentsply Sirona has proudly supported SCADA as an opportunity for pre-doctoral students to discover the importance of dental research,” said Prof. Rainer Seeman, vice president, chief clinical officer at Dentsply Sirona. “We hope the competition inspires the next generation of dental researchers to build on this experience to discover new knowledge and innovations that benefit oral healthcare and the future of dentistry.”
All participants received travel and accommodation support to attend the AADOCR Annual Meeting and presented their research on March 26, 2026. Winners were selected based on their abstract, presentation, and question-and-answer session with judges.
In the Clinical Research / Public Health category, first place was awarded to Edson DeSousa of Harvard School of Dental Medicine for “Metabolic Syndrome and Dyslipidemia May Influence Periodontal Treatment Outcomes.” Second place went to Evan Heidenreich of Kansas City University for “VR and Haptic Simulation in Teaching Dental Local Anesthetic Delivery.” Third place was awarded to Alyssa Saltz of the University of Kentucky for “Guideline Adherence to Dental Opioid Prescribing Recommendations in Kentucky.”
In the Basic and Translational Science Research category, first place was awarded to Elizabeth Leon of Nova Southeastern University for “Porphyromonas gingivalis Vesicles Control Osteoclast–Macrophage Lineage Fate.” Second place went to Fatemeh Ebrahimi of the University of Texas School of Dentistry for “Molecular Regulation of Facial Symmetry: Implications for Orofacial Cleft Pathogenesis.” Third place was awarded to Hannah Herzog of the University of California, San Francisco for “Gut Microbiome Ablation with Antibiotics Attenuates Genetic Heterotopic Ossification.”
“I am extremely grateful to Dentsply Sirona and AADOCR for the opportunity to attend the conference, present our research and meet students, clinicians, and researchers from all over the country and beyond,” said Elizabeth Leon, first-place winner in the Basic and Translational Science Research category. “It was such a fun time in San Diego and an encouraging experience to pursue careers as research clinicians and share our passion for learning and discovery.”
Edson DeSousa, first-place winner in the Clinical Research / Public Health category, said, “It was truly an incredible and inspiring week. Being surrounded by so many passionate clinician-researchers and having the opportunity to present was an honor, and the experience has left a lasting impact on me. I feel even more motivated and encouraged to keep pursuing clinical research and academic dentistry. SCADA was such a meaningful reminder of why I chose this path, and I’m very grateful to have been part of it.”
The winners were honored during an awards ceremony on March 25, 2026, at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel, with approximately 160 guests in attendance.
During the opening ceremony of the Congress, Dr. Jacqueline Mays received the inaugural AADOCR SCADA/Dentsply Sirona Research Award. Mays is a mucosal immunologist and clinical trials dentist whose research focuses on chronic graft-versus-host disease affecting the salivary glands and oral mucosa. She leads the Oral Immunobiology Unit within the Division of Intramural Research at NIDCR, serves as a Lasker Clinical Research Scholar at the National Institutes of Health, and directs the NIDCR Dental Clinical Research Fellowship program.
The award was created to support dentist-scientists, including SCADA alumni, in their research careers. The program supports early-stage dentist-scientists, including post-doctoral scholars and pre-tenure faculty members, with the long-term goal of increasing the number of successfully funded dentist-scientists in dental, oral, and craniofacial biology. Funding for the award is provided through a donation from the SCADA Alumni Association with matching funds from AADOCR.
“We are so proud to support aspiring dental researchers and dentist-scientists early in their careers and to have given them the opportunity to present their projects and build new connections,” said Dr. Effie Ioannidou, president of the AADOCR. ”Scientific discovery in the field of oral healthcare is a noble pursuit and critical to improving dentistry and outcomes for patients in the future.”
More information is available at AADOCR SCADA Awards Page.
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