2017 CTSI Seminar Series resumes in October

At the CTSI/School of Nursing Seminar Series event in March.

At the CTSI/School of Nursing Seminar Series event in March

Published July 26, 2017 This content is archived.

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Martha J. Somerman, DDS, PhD.

Martha J. Somerman, DDS, PhD

The 2017 CTSI Seminar Series, which brings top experts in their respective fields to the University at Buffalo for speaking engagements, returns in October following a summer hiatus.

Martha J. Somerman, DDS, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), will be here Thursday, October 5, as a guest of the School of Dental Medicine.

Somerman's address, titled "Guiding the Future of Oral Health Research, Together," will celebrate accomplishments at the School of Dental Medicine as part of the school's 125th anniversary celebration. Her talk will also identify some of the key people at UB who were involved in establishing and fostering the success of the first oral biology department and PhD program in the United States.

Through the Seminar Series, UB’s CTSI is partnering with the five health sciences schools and Roswell Park Cancer Institute to sponsor a round of visiting scholars. The goal is to appeal to a diverse audience from a variety of disciplines.

“Hearing from these scientific leaders at sessions earlier this year has put our audiences in touch with state-of-the-art research in epidemiology, in bioinformatics and addiction medicine,” said Jessica Reynolds, PhD, who provides leadership for the series. She’s a research associate professor in the Department of Medicine Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology who works in the Clinical and Translational Research Center. “These sessions also promote the cross-fertilization of ideas both within the university and between UB and other institutions.”

The series brought Stanford biophysicist Michael Levitt, PhD, a Nobel Prize winner, to UB in May. Peggy Compton, PhD, RN, FAAN, associate professor in the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Department of Family and Community Health, and an expert in treating opioid addiction, was the featured speaker in March, and in February Arnold Monto, MD, the Thomas Francis Jr. Collegiate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, professor of epidemiology and a leader in infectious disease research, delivered an address.

, MD, to town for the seminar, co-sponsored by the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions and the CTSI.

Monto is the Thomas Francis Jr. Collegiate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Healt, MD, to town for the seminar, co-sponsored by the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions and the CTSI.

Somerman has been director of the NIDCR since 2011, where she manages a $410 million budget and leads a staff of 400 NIH researchers and administrators plus hundreds of grantees at universities, medical centers and other research institutions. Former dean of the University of Washington School of Dentistry, her research focused on defining the key regulators controlling development, maintenance and regeneration of oral-dental-craniofacial tissues.

The seminar is scheduled for Thursday, October 5 at 4:45 p.m. in Butler Auditorium, Farber Hall, UB South Campus. A reception will follow in Squire Hall.