Jacques E. Nör, the Donald A. Kerr Collegiate Professor of Dentistry, is being recommended as the next dean of the School of Dentistry.
His five-year appointment, recommended by Laurie McCauley, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, would be effective Aug. 1, pending approval by the Board of Regents at its June 15 meeting.
(Update: The Board of Regents approved Nör’s appointment at its June 15 meeting.)
“Dr. Nör is an accomplished scholar in the best Michigan tradition. As an internationally recognized and award-winning researcher with an extensive teaching portfolio, he has distinguished himself along multiple dimensions of our university’s core mission,” McCauley said. “Dr. Nör’s demonstrated commitments as a clinician scientist and academic leader hold great promise for his impact on the School of Dentistry.”
Nör, who also is a professor of dentistry in the School of Dentistry and a professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery in the Medical School, joined the dentistry faculty in 1994 as a clinical instructor in the Department of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry. In 1999, he joined the Department of Cariology, Restorative Sciences and Endodontics as an assistant professor, rose to professor in 2006, and was appointed as the Donald A. Kerr Collegiate Professor of Dentistry in 2011.
From 2011-16, he was co-director of the U-M Head and Neck Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence, National Cancer Institute. Since 2015, Nör has served as the chair in the Department of Cariology, Restorative Sciences and Endodontics.
“It is truly an honor to be trusted to serve as the next dean of the school that welcomed me as a graduate student more than 30 years ago. I look forward to working together with our students, staff and faculty within a community that is committed to a relentless pursuit of excellence in patient care, dental education, research and discovery,” Nör said.
“We will achieve these goals using the best evidence to guide every decision. Together, we will honor the tradition of clinical and research excellence that has been embedded in the fabric of the U-M School of Dentistry since its foundation in 1875.”
Nör is internationally recognized for his research on the biology of stem cells in head and neck cancer and in dental tissue regeneration. Since becoming the CRSE chair, he recruited four new tenure-track faculty and 11 full-time clinical track faculty to the department. With the collective effort of CRSE faculty, staff and students doing clinical and basic sciences research, CRSE’s annual research budget increased from $1.9 million in 2015 to $5.8 million in the 2022 fiscal year.
Since 2005, Nör has been a member of Omicron Kappa Upsilon, Honorary Dental Society, and served as president of its Michigan Chapter from 2010-11. He received the William J. Gies Award for Biological Research, given to the “best paper published in the Journal of Dental Research during the preceding year, Biology section” in 2011.
Among many other honors and awards, he received the Distinguished Faculty Research Mentoring Award from the School of Dentistry in 2021. He became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2013, and a fellow of the American Association for Dental Research in 2017.
Nör chaired the section on Dentistry and Oral Health Sciences (Section R) of the AAAS from 2019-20, and was president of the American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research from 2021-22.
His teaching portfolio is extensive, as he lectures in both predoctoral and graduate courses, and directs a graduate level course in molecular biology in clinical dentistry. He has served as a mentor to dozens of undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty.
As CRSE chair, his commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion has encompassed the effort to recruit 15 full-time faculty, including several women and underrepresented minorities. Consequently, 50% of today’s CRSE full-time faculty are women and 44% are from an underrepresented minority background. Nör received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Brazilian Federal University.
He received his Master of Science in pediatric dentistry and a Ph.D. in oral health sciences from the School of Dentistry. Nör also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer cell biology at the Medical School.
Edward Herremans
Excellent choice