The Faculty of Dentistry’s Research Professor Dawn Coates has been awarded the 2026 Women in Science Award for Distinguished Female Mentor by the International Association for Dental Research.
Winner of the 2026 Women in Science Award for Distinguished Female Mentor says helping her students succeed is what makes it all worthwhile.
The University of Otago’s Research Professor Dawn Coates was given the award by the International Association for Dental Research at their General Session Meeting which took place in San Diego from 25 to 28 March.
Dawn, from the Faculty of Dentistry, is thrilled to receive this award and says it represents so much more than her work alone.
“Receiving this is very exciting for me personally, but it also shows that I work with amazing groups of people,” Dawn says.
“This award reflects so many people’s commitment to excellence in science and to a having a culture of teamwork where all our successes are shared.”
Though unable to attend the event herself due to a planned sabbatical to the University of Sydney for bioprinting research, Dawn was able to arrange for a colleague to collect the award on her behalf.
Having been raised on a semi-high country sheep and beef station in Southland, Dawn is no stranger to the hard work and teamwork required to secure achievements like this.
Dawn says her parents raised four children, with Dawn and her twin sister choosing to attend university, which was new to her family.
She says her childhood love of science directed her to career in research, which she feels privileged to be pursuing, though she’s also made sure to hold fast to the resilience, authenticity, independence and creativity taught to her by the community she grew up in.
These values guide her mentorship and have resulted in Dawn having supervised 30 PhD and DClinDent (Doctor of Clinical Dentistry) students during her 19 years at Otago.
She is currently supervising nine postgraduate students and says past students of hers have progressed to careers as practising dental specialists and academics, with some of them even going on to become professors.
“It is immensely satisfying to see them succeed in their chosen fields.”
“The most important part of being a supervisor is to care for the person first and the tasks second.”
“My students are highly intelligent and successful, and so what they need most is support and guidance.”
Dawn says that amongst teaching skills like critical thinking, scientific writing, curiosity, statistical analysis and how to reference literature appropriately, it’s important for students and supervisors alike to remind themselves that research is a roller-coaster ride.
“Things will go wrong along the journey and my experience is we learn more from the process of problem solving than when everything is smooth sailing.”
Dawn wears a myriad of hats in the Faculty of Dentistry, including being the Dental Engineering and Tissue Regeneration Programme Lead, Deputy Associate Dean of Research, and head of the Research Advisory Committee.
Her academic research involves investigating bone regeneration by making new bone grafting materials, and her current projects include producing antimicrobial materials for regeneration, silver nanoparticles as a bone hydrogel, lactoferrin as a chemically crosslinked gel bone material, and 3D-printed PLC/hydroxyapatite for bone regeneration.
For the past four years, Dawn and her team have been working alongside Māori partners to produce nanoparticles which incorporate mānuka oil in a gel for the treatment of gum disease, a collagen based surgical membrane and constructs of bone regeneration.
- Kōrero by Kelsey Swart, the Division of Health Sciences Communications Adviser
Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS)
Most graduates in Dentistry enter general practice on their own or in association with others. Some undertake postgraduate study and research training in preparation for an academic career. Others obtain further experience and complete postgraduate clinical qualifications before entering specialist practice.
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