Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine student Nicholas Varney was honored during April for his individual academic achievements.
Varney, a second year student from Springfield, earned the Irwin Robinson Research Award worth $500 from the Odontographic Society of Chicago Research and Education Foundation. The purpose of the award is to grant directly to student researchers, who are deserving of a financial award, to recognize their research efforts. The award celebrates the work of a student investigator in a scientific project related to dentistry and other health sciences.
Varney’s research presentation is “Expression of Mas-Related Gene (MRG) Receptors in Human Dental Pulp.” He has been working on a research project for two years in the lab of Dr. Medha Gautam, associate professor of pharmacology. He has been performing experiments to determine the identity and distribution of a new class of pain modulating receptors in dental pulp.
Varney has also earned an ADA Foundation Predoctoral Dental Student Scholarship. The program’s goal is to facilitate the education of academically gifted dental students. He also offered an oral presentation at the 43rd Annual Session of the American Association for Dental Research in Charlotte in mid-March.
“What stood out for me, was that Nick’s work was selected for an oral presentation at the AADR meeting after a competitive peer-review process,” said Gautam. “It was a pleasure to see SDM research being presented in this way at a national level scientific meeting to an international audience of distinguished dental researchers.
“Apart from his motivation and commitment, what may have helped Nick the most in his research is his tenacity and positive attitude. He remained focused and became successful in achieving his research goals.”
As a result of his research presentation at the annual SIU SDM Resarch Day in April, Varney earned the Illinois State Dental Society Foundation’s Basic Science Research Award. He has been invited to present his Table Clinic at the ISDS Annual Meeting, to be held September 18–20, in Schaumburg.
Varney was recently selected to serve the American Association for Dental Research/National Student Research Group as a member-at-large for 2014-15. Each year, the AADR/NSRG Board appoints two members-at-large. The one-year terms usually begin in May.
The members-at-large serve as local advocates for NSRG and reach out to dental schools to promote AADR, research and student activities. They also serve on NSRG Board committees that coordinate initiatives such as publications, student surveys, annual meeting programming and events and local outreach.
Photo: SIU School of Dental Medicine student Nicholas Varney.