Lifetime Achievement Award for Orthodontic Research, 2019.

Abstract

In 2015, the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) established a new award, the Lifetime Achievement Award for Orthodontic Research. The first recipient of this award was Dr William R. Proffit, who received his award at the AAO in 2017. In 2018, Dr Lysle E. Johnston Jr received the second award and nominations were solicited for the 2019 award. Nominees are intended to be those who have made significant contributions to the science related to the specialty of orthodontics. Their research should be considered original, outstanding, and innovative. Additional consideration is due to those who have established a legacy of research and discovery that is inspiring to the academic community. Likewise, it is important that the nominee has produced information that is useful, or potentially useful, in advancing the practice of orthodontics. Nominations from AAO members were received via the AAO website under the category “Awards.” Any AAO member can access the material and upload the required materials to place a person in nomination; in addition, AAO members can express their support for those already nominated. In addition, the editors of 14 other orthodontics journals were invited to place a name in nomination. Three nominations were received at the AAO Web site, and 4 more from the editors of other orthodontics journals. The nomination materials were evaluated by select members of the AAO Council on Scientific Affairs, Dr Proffit, Dr Johnston, and others and then presented to the members of the AAO Board of Trustees in May 2018 for their deliberation and decision. It is an honor to inform you that Dr Peter H. Buschang was selected to receive the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award for Orthodontic Research (Fig). He will receive his award in Los Angeles, at the AAO Annual Session, May 3-7, 2019, just before his lecture, “30 years of achievements—our proudest moments.” At the conclusion of his presentation, the recipient of the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award for Orthodontic Research will be announced. Peter Buschang's educational preparation began at the University of Texas at Austin. There he received a BA in physical anthropology (1976), an MA in primate anatomy (1978), and a PhD in human growth and development (1980). Subsequently, he involved himself in 2 postdoctoral fellowships: first at the University of Connecticut (1980-1983) and then at the University of Montreal (1983-1988). All of these experiences were very important in terms of his development and preparation for a valuable and productive career in academics. He also came to realize the value of collaboration and established important relationships with many colleagues, a trait characteristic of his entire career. In 1988, Dr Buschang joined the faculty at Baylor College of Dentistry as an Associate Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Orthodontics. Over time he demonstrated his value in many ways and by great measure. For example, he presently has a very large teaching load involving the dental and graduate students (1 dental course, 3 graduate core courses, and 8 orthodontics courses). Importantly, he also raised the quality of research at Baylor. He has guided hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students in their research projects, the majority of which have been published in refereed journals; 30 of those students have won awards for the quality of their work. To amplify this accomplishment, his orthodontic graduate students have won 18 awards from the AAO and AJO-DO. Dr Buschang's areas of interest and influence pertain to craniofacial growth, the evaluation of treatment effects, and motor-oral function. In the early part of his career he sought an understanding as to how form and function are related. This involved research on various aspects of motor-oral function, including masticatory performance, jaw excursions, jaw kinematics, jaw muscle forces, and jaw muscle physiology. During this period, he also developed expertise in longitudinal craniofacial growth assessment, and this development resulted in strong interests in clinical studies evaluating the short- and long-term morphologic consequences of orthodontic and surgical treatments. More recently, his clinical research interests have focused on understanding and optimizing the effects of distraction osteogenesis, especially dentoalveolar distraction. Over the past decade, his efforts have been focused on the application of miniscrew implants for orthodontic and orthopedic treatments. He and his coauthors have been very successful in these areas and have published more than 300 papers and more than 200 abstracts; he has also written 18 book chapters and 3 books. Based on all his work, he has delivered more than 200 presentations in the United States and abroad. Peter is not an orthodontist, and that characteristic is important in many ways. Not being a clinician frees him from some of the biases that affect research and practice. He sees issues from a fairly unique perspective but still understands clinical matters and clinicians. This pairs well with his manner of interaction with his students and orthodontics colleagues. In all, he is aware of what is known and not known, what is important and what is not, and how one can go about learning more about any orthodontic issue. He admires hard work, he is straightforward and clear in his guidance and expectations, he is willing to help in any way he is able, and he is dogged in his determination to conclude any project he is involved in. Of course, he values the quality of the accomplishment. These characteristics have affected the many people that he has worked with and taught over the years. He is admired, respected, and trusted as a person, an academic, and a person who is dedicated to the best interests of orthodontics. As testimony supporting such a statement, he has served as the Director of Orthodontic Research for 30 years, he was promoted to the rank of Professor in 1999, he was honored by the Texas A&M Board of Regents as a Regent's Professor in 2013, through the generosity of the Baylor orthodontic alumni the Peter H. Buschang Endowed Professorship was established in 2011 and he was appointed to that position, as an extension an additional effort is now being made by the alumni to establish the Peter H. Buschang Chair of Orthodontics, he recently served as the Chair of the Department of Orthodontics at Baylor on an interim basis, he is the only nonorthodontist to be awarded honorary membership in both the American Association of Orthodontists (2005) and the Edward H. Angle Society of Orthodontists (2009), and in 2018 he was selected to give the Edward H. Angle Memorial Lecture and to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for Orthodontic Research in 2019. On behalf of the specialty and the AAO, we acknowledge that Peter Buschang has made significant contributions to the wealth of knowledge we enjoy in orthodontics. Thank you, Dr Buschang, for a job well done. “Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that's precise, predictive and reliable—a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.”—Brian Greene (American Theoretical Physicist) The description of Peter H. Buschang was fashioned almost entirely from materials provided by Dr Phil Campbell, his extensive curriculum vitae, and my own memory of him when we worked together at Baylor College of Dentistry and later at Saint Louis University.