Past symposia

2025 symposium

Our 2025 Clinical and Research Excellence Symposium was held on 10 and 11 September 2025 at the Hutton Theatre, Tūtura Otago Museum and online.

The Programme and Abstract book for the 2025 Symposium will be available as an appendix to our 2025 Research Report.

2025 Research Report (PDF)

Keynote speakers

Two internationally renown keynote speakers headlined our 2025 Clinical and Research Excellence Symposium.

Professor Nor Adinar Baharuddin

Nor Adinar Baharuddin is Professor of Periodontics at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya.

With nearly three decades of experience spanning academia, clinical research, and institutional leadership, she has been instrumental in advancing dental education and research in Malaysia.

Her research bridges clinical periodontology and public health, focusing on obesity-related periodontal disease, salivary biomarkers, risk prediction tools, and translational applications using animal models.

Fighting periodontitis: Can questionnaire and biomarkers provide the answer?

Periodontitis remains a significant global oral health challenge, yet current diagnostic methods are resource-intensive and unsuitable for large-scale screening. This presentation explores an innovative, fully non-invasive approach that combines self-reported oral health questionnaires with salivary biomarker analysis, assessed through advanced predictive modelling. It will illustrate how digital health and machine learning can pioneer the path between clinical excellence and public health, enabling earlier detection, improved patient outcomes, and a reduced global burden of periodontal disease.

Professor Nadim M. Islam

Nadim M. Islam is Professor and Residency Program and Internship Director of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology at the University of Florida College of Dentistry, USA.

His area of special interest includes oral potentially malignant disorders, salivary gland pathology and oral mucosal lesions with focus on chronic ulcerative stomatitis. He served as the past-Director of Oral Pathology Laboratory and Biopsy Service, which is actively involved in a multi-state Oral Pathology biopsy service accessing over 20,000 specimens annually.

He is visiting the Faculty as a 2025 Sir Thomas K. Sidey Visiting Professor.

Potpourri of oral pathology – An update of conditions encountered in general and specialty dental practices

This presentation will provide a collection of interesting case studies in oral and maxillofacial pathology covering a variety of conditions encountered in general and specialty dental practice. Emphasis will be placed on lesions and conditions commonly seen in dental practice, especially those difficult to diagnose and/or manage, newly diagnosed conditions, and a plethora of entities, both premalignant and malignant.

Awards and prizes

Prizes for the best postgraduate presentations were presented at the end of the Symposium, along with our annual SJWRI Awards. Congratulations to this year’s recipients:

Clinical case presentation awards

1st: Elora Low, DClinDent (Periodontics)
2nd: Clarine Cheah, DClinDent (Prosthodontics)
3rd: Ranina Mohd Rom, DClinDent (Paediatric Dentistry)

Research presentation awards

PhD candidates
1st: Ghsaq Alhamdani
2nd: Abby (Xiaoyun) Liu
3rd: Lucy Henderson

DClinDent and masters' candidates
1st: Lisa Hanson, DClinDent (Paediatric Dentistry)
2nd: TianYou (Woody) Wu,  DClinDent (Orthodontics)
3rd: Daniel Waller, DClinDent (Orthodontics)

Sir John Walsh Research Institute Awards

Sir John Walsh Award for Research Excellence
For research achievements over the previous calendar year (2024):

• Senior researcher: Associate Professor Peter Li Mei
• Early/mid-career researcher: Dr Kai Chun (KC) Li

Postgraduate Research Supervisor of the Year
As nominated by our postgraduate research students:

• Associate Professor Peter Li Mei

Research Publication of the Year
For articles accepted for publication in 2024:

• Dr KC Li
  Wan B, Man Z, Li KC, Swain MV, Li Q. On elastoplastic behavior of porous enamel-An indentation and numerical study. Acta Biomater. 2024 Jul 15;183:210-220. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2024.05.038

Postgraduate Research Publication of the Year
For articles accepted for publication in 2024:

• Ana Grymak, PhD candidate
  Grymak A, Aarts JM, Cameron AB, Choi JJE. Evaluation of wear resistance and surface properties of additively manufactured restorative dental materials. J Dent. 2024 Aug;147:105120. doi: 10.1016/j.jdent.2024.105120

2025 Sponsors

Our 2025 Symposium was made possible by the support of the following sponsors: