New dental dean decided

The UW has chosen its next dean for the School of Dentistry, the largest dentistry school on the West Coast and the training ground for an estimated 75 percent of dental practitioners in Washington.

The prestigious position has been offered to Dr. Martha J. Somerman from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. The move ends 11 years at the Midwest school, where she has been an expert in cell behavior and in molecular approaches to restoring tissue.

The appointment concludes a national search and is subject to confirmation by the Board of Regents at its next regular meeting on May 17.

Somerman, 55, will continue serving as the associate dean for research at the Michigan school until she comes to the Northwest in September. Her annual salary will be $276,000.

She was recently president of the American Association for Dental Research, serves on the advisory council for the National Institute of Craniofacial and Dental Research, National Institutes of Health, and was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2001.

All these achievements make President Richard McCormick proud of the school's new asset.

"She is well respected for her teaching and research, and has attained prominent national recognition for both. Dr. Somerman will provide fine leadership for our strong and nationally renowned School of Dentistry," said McCormick in a prepared statement announcing his decision.

The prestige of the UW's dental school appears to have attracted Somerman.

"I am honored and privileged to be associated with such a prestigious and prominent dental school," said Somerman in her own prepared statement. "I hope to contribute to its continuing growth and success."

The search for a new dean started after the retirement last year of Dr. Paul B. Robertson, who had been dean for nine years, and was recently named the Washington Dental Service Foundation Distinguished Professor in Dentistry.

Somerman received her D.D.S. degree from New York University in 1975 and her Ph.D. from the University of Rochester, N.Y., in 1980. She received a periodontics certificate that same year from Eastman Dental Center in Rochester.