The Alumnus Distinguished Service Award this year went to Professor Stephen Dunne. This prize is intended to honour a long-serving member of staff who has made a significant contribution to the Dental Institute or one of its constituent Schools.
Professor Dunne is Maurice Wohl Chair in Primary Dental Care and Advanced Dental Practice at King's College London Dental Institute. He is a long-serving educationalist, clinician and researcher and has made major contributions to the Dental Institute from administrative, clinical teaching and academic perspectives.
He has led primary dental care at the Dental Institute for over ten years and has championed dental surgery assistants, hygienists and therapists as clinical director and through training programmes, committees and national bodies. He is currently President of the European Federation of Conservative Dentistry and was elected to Vice-President of the King's College London Dental Alumni Association with immediate effect.
Professor Dunne is a popular winner, notably through his support of students, past and present, helping them through finals and beyond.
Commenting on his achievement, he said: ‘I was surprised but delighted to be nominated for the Alumnus Distinguished Service Award. However, my expectations of the final outcome were not high since my co-nominees are all distinguished colleagues at the Dental Institute and very worthy of receiving the award. I anticipate that their contributions will be fully and formally recognised in the near future. Imagine my surprise then, at the recent Alumni dinner, when it began to dawn on me that the President was reading out a very familiar curriculum vitae! I am delighted and honoured to receive this award and thank all of my friends and colleagues for their much-valued support. My hope is that, as a newly elected vice president of the Alumni Association, I may be able to continue my service to the Dental Institute and King’s for many more years.’
The Alumnus of the Year Award was presented to Dr Jeremy Asquith. The prize is for a person who qualified at one of the constituent Schools and has achieved distinction in any walk of life and brought credit to the profession, directly or indirectly, with particular emphasis on the last three years.
Dr Asquith has worked as a principal dentist and devoted his career to excel his practice and served the community in Ruislip for many years. His strategic contributions, steadfast commitment and outstanding achievements, by lobbying for better oral health for the nation, has brought credit to the profession.
Since 2000, Dr Asquith has served as the Chair of Hillingdon Local Dental Committee (LDC) and is the Treasurer of London LDC's. He has also chaired several health debates contributing to the improvement of the dental health of the UK population and was co-opted to Parliamentary Health and Social Care Policy Committee. Having served in many ranks of the British Dental Association, in 2012 he was elected to English and UK Councils of the British Dental Association.
He has served King’s College London in many spheres, he is on the Council of King's College London Association and he is currently the Vice President of King's College Alumni Association.
In addition, he reached the semi-finals of Mastermind in 2010, bringing credit to his alumni, and represented England recently in the semi-finals of the World Chess Championship.
Dr Asquith commented: 'I was honoured and humbled to be given the Alumnus of the Year Award as a General Practitioner.'
Both awards were presented by the President of the Dental Alumni Association, Professor Patricia Reynolds.