The $50,000, 12-month Fellowship is awarded by the Foundation and includes a stipend for the Fellow as well as funds to offset the hosting institution's overhead and administrative costs...

AAP Foundation Awards Lazzara Fellowship to Dr. Jill Bashutski

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The $50,000, 12-month Fellowship is awarded by the Foundation and includes a stipend for the Fellow as well as funds to offset the hosting institution's overhead and administrative costs.

CHICAGO, May 29, 2008–The American Academy of Periodontology Foundation recently announced that it has awarded the $50,000 Richard J. Lazzara Fellowship in Advanced Implant Surgery to Jill Bashutski, DDS, currently a third-year student in the postdoctoral periodontal program at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. The Fellowship is a 12-month award sponsored by BIOMET 3i and includes a stipend for the recipient as well as funds to offset the hosting institution’s overhead and administrative costs.

This is the second Lazzara Fellowship to be awarded to a student in the University of Michigan School of Dentistry periodontal program. Hom-Lay Wang, DDS, MSD, PhD, director of the school’s postdoctoral periodontal program, says, “We’ve got good, talented students and we have a strong faculty. Our students want to be future leaders and academicians, and we constantly strive to provide the kind of environment that nurtures that. We’d like to thank BIOMET 3i for providing the opportunity for our students to conduct meaningful research in implantology and contribute to the literature.”

D. Walter Cohen, DDS, Chair of the Foundation’s Lazzara Fellowship Selection Committee, notes that by fostering the development of future academics and researchers, the Fellowship is helping to stem the pending loss of periodontal educators as a large number approach retirement. “The Foundation is committed to helping avert a looming crisis in periodontal education by offering significant awards, such as the Lazzara Fellowship, that encourage young periodontists to pursue an academic career path,” he says.

Steven Schiess, President of BIOMET 3i, says that the company takes pride in its role in fostering the development of future leaders as an outgrowth of the Lazzara Fellowship. “As the Fellowship now enters its fifth year, we see that previous recipients continue to make significant contributions to implantology’s body of knowledge while developing the additional skills and experiences that mark them as future leaders in their specialty. To see that the Fellowship has had such broad impact is very gratifying.”

Dr. Bashutski has received a number of awards prior to being named a Lazzara Fellow. These include the AAP Foundation Tarrson Regeneration Scholarship in 2005, the Quintessence Award for Clinical Achievement in Periodontics (2005), the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario Scholarship for highest academic ranking (2002/2003) and the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology Award (2002/2003). Dr. Bashutski received her DDS from the University of Western Ontario (Canada).

For more information about the Lazzara Fellowship, visit the Foundation website at www.perio.org/foundation.

About AAP Foundation: The mission of the American Academy of Periodontology Foundation is to improve the periodontal and general health of the public through increasing public and professional knowledge of periodontal diseases and their therapies, stimulating basic and clinical research to generate new knowledge, and enhancing educational programs at all levels to create opportunities in periodontal education and practice. Periodontics is one of nine dental specialties recognized by the American Dental Association.

To get more information about any AAP Foundation activities, please contact Robert A. Vitas, PhD, CAE, CFRE, Executive Director, at 312/573-3256 or bob@perio.org.

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