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The American Academy of Oral Medicine (AAOM) is proud to announce that one of its own, Dr. Sunday Akintoye an AAOM Board of Trustees member and chair of the Abstracts and Participation Programs Subcommittee, has been selected as a Fulbright Scholar. Fulbright Scholarship to Bring Penn Dental Medicine Professor Full Circle (Excerpt from article written in the Penn News. Penn News Media Contact: Katherine Unger Baillie, [email protected]) For Sunday Akintoye, an associate professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine, his
 recent selection as a Fulbright Scholar to Nigeria is taking him full circle, giving him the opportunity to return to his native country to conduct research and teach where he began his dental training.“Over the years at international meetings, I’ve noticed an underrepresentation of African researchers and students, and the students in particular seem to lack some of the mentoring opportunities that students in the United States enjoy,” Akintoye says. “I used to be in their shoes and am excited to now embark on this fellowship to provide research mentorship for African students.”
The Fulbright award will enable him to spend several months of the 2015-16 academic year in Nigeria, teaching and mentoring students and young faculty members. He is hopeful that his contribution to supporting researchers in Africa doesn’t end with his award but continues through partnerships between Penn Dental Medicine and the University of Lagos, where he began his career and where he will be teaching as part of the fellowship. Dental school in Lagos sparked Akintoye’s interest in research and teaching. He practiced dentistry after graduation but knew his opportunities to pursue research to advance the field would be limited unless he trained elsewhere. “I realized that not only would I gain access to more advanced physical and intellectual resources in the U.S.,” he says, “but I also felt that going to the U.S. would be an opportunity to learn, find opportunities to conduct research and eventually give back in some way to communities in Africa and the dental community in general.” |