Academy of Operative Dentistry Hollenback Memorial Prize

Professor Dr Guido Vanherle

The 2007 Hollenback Prize Memorial is to be awarded to Professor Dr Guido Vanherle for his exceptional contributions to operative dentistry. These contributions span clinical practice, teaching, research and leadership.

Notwithstanding his recent presidency of the European Federation of Conservative Dentistry, subsequent to having been President of the Academy of Operative Dentistry European Section, Guido Vanherle is best known for having created and led the world-renowned operative dentistry and dental materials science research team based at the School of Dentistry, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

This research team continues to be central to developing new knowledge and understanding in the related fields of tooth-colored restoratives and related adhesive systems. Indeed, many of the papers that have resulted in real change in operative dentistry over the last quarter century have come from the Vanherle research team, with Guido Vanherle as a principal author.

From his time as a medical and, subsequently, as a dental student at the University of Leuven, Guido Vanherle quickly rose through the ranks to hold full professorial appointments in operative dentistry and dental materials en route to being Head of the Clinical Department of Operative Dentistry and, subsequently, President of the Clinic of Dentistry and Stomatology Academic Hospital, University of Leuven.

Without exceptional individuals such as Guido Vanherle, operative dentistry would lack the vibrancy and enormous potential it currently enjoys in the dynamic, ever-changing world of new materials, procedures and concepts. Guido Vanherle is, therefore, a most worthy winner of the 2007 Hollenback Memorial Prize. The Academy is most pleased to recognize and honor the exceptional work and lifetime achievements of Dr Guido Vanherle. This year's Hollenback Memorial Prize winner is truly world class, let alone an exemplary member of the international dental community.