Dr. Robert Burne (VIRTUAL)
Robert A. Burne earned his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Rochester (UR).
After a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship, he served for 10 years on the faculty of UR’s School of Medicine and Dentistry. He moved to the University of Florida College of Dentistry (UFCD) in 2001, where he served as Chair of the Department of Oral Biology for 18 years and as Program Director of UFCD’s NIDCR-funded Comprehensive Training Program in Oral Biology for over 12 years.
He is presently a Distinguished Professor of the Department of Oral Biology, after stepping down from his 10-year role as the Associate Dean for Research in 2020, and the Louis and Marge Atkins Endowed Professor.
Dr. Burne’s research is aimed at dissecting molecular mechanisms governing the ability of bacteria that colonize the human oral cavity to modulate gene expression in response to environmental inputs.
He is internationally recognized for his work with Streptococcus mutans and other oral streptococci; making seminal contributions to understanding the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism, stress tolerance, and intercellular communication by oral streptococci.
He has published ~200 peer-reviewed articles on these topics, as well as on the genetics, physiology, and ecology of oral biofilms, and on novel probiotic mechanisms used by beneficial bacteria to promote health in the oral microbiome.
Over 150 students, postdoctoral fellows, clinician-scientists, and international fellows have received training in his laboratory. He received the IADR Gies and IADR Hatton Awards as a Ph.D. student and the IADR’s Distinguished Scientist Award for Research in Dental Caries in 2009. Dr. Burne is currently a Fellow and Member-at-Large of the AAAS.
Dr. Maria Ryan
Maria Emanuel Ryan, DDS, Ph.D. is Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at the Colgate-Palmolive Company where she provides oversight and leadership to dental and dermal clinical organizations, knowledge management, scientific communications, biosolutions, and methods development teams.
Dr. Ryan previously served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Oral Biology and Pathology at Stony Brook University where she was actively involved in teaching, clinical practice, and research.
She is the Past President of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) and has served on many academic and foundation boards.
Dr. Ryan has received numerous awards including NIH National Research Service Awards and a Physician-Scientist Award. She was the recipient of the New Dentist Leadership Award from the Dental Society of the State of New York and received an achievement award from the American Dental Association. Dr. Ryan was the first recipient of the Victress Health Award which she received in Berlin, Germany in 2010 to recognize her educational and research efforts in the area of women’s health.
Dr. Ryan is a Distinguished Alumnus of Stony Brook’s School of Dental Medicine and was a Fellow of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women at Drexel University College of Medicine.
Dr. Ryan is a nationally and internationally known speaker and author who has appeared on multiple media outlets to discuss the role of the dental professional in the provision of optimal overall health care.
Jeff Stevens
From operating executive to entrepreneur to disruptive inventor and engineer, Jeff Stevens 25+ years of experience has covered healthcare, financial services, and enterprise technologies. He has been the visionary and/or managed the transformation of ideas (sometimes moonshot) into reality rooted in market opportunity and impact, while mitigating financial risks.
In 2017, he was one of three winners of the NASA iTech competition for his novel, diagnostic, crew health technology for the mission to Mars and beyond. He coined the phrase “Joules for Jewels” to describe the tradeoff between stored energy (joules) and the data that can be harvested (jewels) by ultra-low-power sensors.
Greg Baker
Jonathan Wainberg
Dennis Chmiel, DVM
Pete Wedderburn
Dr Pete Wedderburn BVM&S CertVR MRCVS is a qualified veterinarian since 1985. He has worked in his own four-veterinarian companion animal practice in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland since 1991, and he has his own menagerie of dogs, cats, ducks, hens and a few other furry friends! His mission in life is to communicate high-quality information to pet owners, in an entertaining, engaging way. As part of this mission, he is a founder of the innovative pet health information website, www.petfixclub.com, which launched in late 2020.