Faculty of Dentistry Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Fifty years ago, eight students registered for what was the first dental class at the UBC Faculty of Dentistry. On September 19 and 20, the program brushed up its five decades of molars and milestones and celebrated reaching its historic 50-year mark, together with hundreds of alumni, current and former students, faculty and staff who attended the welcome reception symposium and gala at the equally historic Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver.

On November 28, the faculty had more reasons to celebrate when Dentistry professor David Sweet receives the Medallion for Distinguished Service and what is the highest honour the Canadian military can bestow on a civilian. It’s an acknowledgment of the work of Sweet and his colleagues at the UBC-based Bureau of Legal Dentistry that trains military and police pathologists in the exacting science of victim identification using teeth and dental records.

Sweet is also the founder of BC-FORT, the 90-member B.C. Odontology Response Team, a trained cohort of responders ready to be deployed to catastrophes in Canada or abroad where Canadians may have perished. In 2008, Sweet was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada for his work in medical pathology.