College of Dentistry faculty elected to national organizations

May 15, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Two University of Florida College of Dentistry faculty members have been tapped to serve on national dental associations. Dr. Marc W. Heft, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery and diagnostic sciences, was elected the 36th president of the American Association for Dental Research at the association’s annual meeting in March. Dr. Scott L. Tomar, professor and chairman of the department of community dentistry and behavioral science, has been elected vice president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry.

As president of the American Association of Dental Research, Heft’s responsibilities include representing the association at national meetings, presiding over board and council meetings, establishing task forces on issues of interest to the AADR and promoting its mission.

Heft has led a distinguished career of research and instruction at UF since 1984, after earning his bachelor’s and dental degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and his doctoral degree in psychology from American University. Besides his appointment in the College of Dentistry, Heft holds joint appointments as a professor of neuroscience in the College of Medicine and a professor of clinical and health psychology in the College of Public Health and Health Professions. He is the director of the Claude D. Pepper Center for Research on Oral Health in Aging, and is a member of UF’s McKnight Brain Institute. He is a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Gerontological Society of America.

Tomar will automatically become president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry in 2009. The association is the world’s largest multidisciplinary professional organization focused on improving public oral health.

Tomar, who earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine from Temple University, his Master of Public Health from Columbia University and his Doctor of Public Health in oral epidemiology from the University of Michigan, studies the relationship of tobacco use to the development of oral diseases and cancers.

He has served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health and has been a consultant to the World Health Organization, the CDC, the National Institutes of Health and the Florida Comprehensive Cancer Control Initiative.