News

L to r: Drs. Anjali Sharma, Violet D'Souza, Locke Davenport Huyer

We are delighted to welcome three new faculty members to the Faculty of Dentistry, including our first ever Canada Research Chair (Tier 2). Drs. Anjali Sharma, Violet D'Souza, and Locke Davenport Huyer will join us this summer and we are excited by the research interests and expertise they will bring to our Faculty.

Dr. Anjali Sharma joins us as an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Oral Sciences. She also has the great distinction of being the Faculty’s first Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in functional polymeric biomaterials. As if that wasn’t enough, Dr. Sharma has received funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund to help support her research. A polymer chemist, Dr. Sharma has a PhD from McGill University and is particularly interested in target-specific drug delivery. For the past few years, she has been a post-doctoral fellow and a member of the research faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Here at Dalhousie, she will continue her research into the development of biocompatible, disease-directed dendrimers for target-specific drug delivery and imaging.

Dr. Violet D’Souza is a dental public health specialist and she joins our Dental Clinical Sciences Department as an assistant professor. Dr. D’Souza holds a PhD in dental science from McGill University, a Masters in Restorative Dentistry from the University of Helsinki, and a Masters in Dental Public Health from the University of Iowa. She has also completed two postdoctoral assignments. Some of Dr. D’Souza’s recent research interests concern the oral health of individuals with chronic illnesses, particularly long-term care residents, individuals with cognitive decline, and those receiving palliative/hospice care. At Dal, she will be involved in teaching research and dental public health-related courses and conducting research that addresses the unmet oral health needs of the geriatric population, cancer survivors, and other marginalized population groups.

Dr. Locke Davenport Huyer joins our Faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Oral Sciences. He holds a BEng from Queen’s University and a PhD in from the University of Toronto, both in chemical engineering. He also completed postdoctoral studies in immunology at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Davenport Huyer’s research to date has been highly interdisciplinary, including contributions to cardiac tissue engineering, organ-on-a-chip technologies, polymer development, bacterial growth behaviour, and immune metabolism. He also has a passion for mentorship and teaching and is particularly interested in teaching methods that help to foster problem solving and greater equity and diversity in the classroom.