Memorial service set for former UB dental professor

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Emeritus Center in Goodyear Hall on the South Campus for Elliot N. Gale, professor emeritus of behavioral science in the School of Dental Medicine.

Gale, 61, died unexpectedly Jan. 14 in his North Buffalo home. He was in the process of retiring to a home in New Mexico.

Gale joined the dental-school faculty as an assistant professor of behavioral science and psychology in 1966, serving as a faculty member in the school for more than 30 years.

His area of expertise was chronic jaw muscle pain, and he was an internationally known pioneer in the use of biofeedback to treat the disorder.

He recently had completed a study involving the use of positron emission tomography (PET scan) to identify areas of the brain that are activated by jaw muscle pain.

For more than two decades, Gale collaborated with colleagues at the University of Goteborg, Sweden, on jaw muscle pain research. He also served as a consultant to the university's dental and psychology faculty.

In 1982, the university awarded him an honorary doctor of odontology degree.

He had been a visiting professor at Gifu College of Dentistry in Japan and a consultant with the U.S. Peace Corps.

Gale was a member of numerous professional organizations, including Sigma Xi, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Neuroscience Group of the International Association for Dental Research and the American Psychological Association.

A native of Kansas City, Mo., Gale received bachelor's and doctoral degrees in psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. He completed postdoctoral work at Wayne State University in Detroit.

He authored or co-authored numerous articles in scholarly publications and lectured extensively both here and abroad.