Outstanding achievement

Named after Columbia biochemist and CDM co-founder, the award honors individuals and organisations that exemplify the highest standards of vision, innovation and achievement in dental medicine. The college and its faculty have received two previous Gies Awards, given by the ADEAGies Foundation, the philanthropic arm of ADEA.

“As dean for nearly one quarter of the school’s 100-year history, Dr Formicola made a lasting impact not only at Columbia but within our field,” said Christian S. Stohler, dean of the College of Dental Medicine and senior vice president of Columbia University Medical Center. “We are honoured that he continues his important work here, most recently by authoring a seminal text chronicling our school’s 100-year history.”

During his deanship from 1978 to 2001, Allan oversaw a number of critical advances to the school’s educational, patient care and service work. Driven by the college’s founding principle that oral health is inseparable from overall health, he led the charge in restructuring the pre-doctoral curriculum and expanding the Presbyterian Hospital (now New York Presbyterian) residency programs, which now include oral and maxillofacial surgery, pediatric dentistry and general dentistry.