Foundation of Excellence in Research Award

California’s great gain, in the person of State Dental Director Dr. Jayanth Kumar, may have come at a great cost to New York State, but thankfully, the strong relationships that Jay forged during his many years at the helm of the NYS Dental Bureau have continued to flourish. Jay began working for the NYS Department of Health back in the days when the AIDS epidemic had started; at that time, nobody knew that AIDS was caused by the HIV virus but dentists were seeing people who had unusual ulcers and tumors called Kaposi sarcoma in the mouth. Dr. Kumar’s leadership and vision helped pave the way to universal infection control precautions. Additionally, he promoted efforts to work on public health approaches for high-risk groups such as pregnant women. Just as important, he worked closely with NYSDA on campaigns to promote fluoridation, oral cancer prevention, loan forgiveness and dental health certificates for children entering grades K, 2, 4, 7 and 10.
 
In accepting the Foundation of Excellence Award in Research for commitment to applying creative, science-based methods to improve oral health outcomes, Dr. Kumar joins an illustrious pantheon of past winners such as Dr. Regina Landesberg, Dr. Alice Horowitz, Dr. Daniel H. Fine, Dr. Irwin Mandel, and Dr. Cyril Meyerowitz.