03/09/2023
We are extremely proud of Dr. Bianca Lau, Class of 2022! She is the winner of the 2023 JCO Eugene L. Gottlieb Student of the Year Award.
We are proud to announce the winner of the 2023 JCO Eugene L. Gottlieb Student of the Year Award, presented by American Orthodontics: Dr. Bianca Lau from the University of the Pacific.
Dr. Lau was selected over 30 other students from schools around the United States and Canada in a two-stage, months-long competition judged for clinical excellence by members of the JCO editorial board. Her prize includes more than $8,000 worth of products and services from American Orthodontics, JCO, and Dolphin.
“I’m grateful for all the support I’ve received over the years, and I feel very blessed to have been surrounded by amazing faculty, mentors, and coresidents,” said Dr. Lau. “This award is a manifestation of all the hard work, patience, love, and time our program director, clinic director, and all our faculty and staff have invested into the residents at University of the Pacific.”
Dr. Lau grew up in San Francisco and attended the University of the Pacific’s accelerated pre-dental advantage program, which included two years of undergraduate study followed by a three-year dental program. A complete profile of Dr. Lau will be published in a future issue of JCO and posted on JCO’s page.
Dr. Lau is the eighth Student of the Year award winner, joining Dr. Shelby Steffenhagen of the University of Texas San Antonio (2022), Dr. Amanda Gross of Texas A&M University (2021), Dr. Saro Atam of Stony Brook University (2020), Dr. Katya Skillestad of Texas A&M University (2019), Dr. Samaneh Mojarrad of the University of Pennsylvania (2018), Dr. Moataz Elmahdy of the University of Rochester (2017), and Dr. Krystian Jarosz of Rutgers University (2016). The University of the Pacific is the seventh different school to be recognized with the award.
The award program grew out of JCO’s central mission to specialize in the clinical side of orthodontics. “JCO is the clinician’s journal,” said JCO Editor Dr. Neal Kravitz. “So it is fitting that since most of the other awards are for research, we award the clinician’s resident award.” JCO was founded in 1967 by Dr. Eugene L. Gottlieb, after whom the Student of the Year Award is named. Dr. Gottlieb died in 2018 at age 99.
“This award has always been one of my favorite things,” said Dr. Kravitz, who has been a judge for all eight years. “I am always blown away by the incredible submissions that make the judges’ decision difficult, and I want to congratulate all 31 students who participated and the other 11 finalists. It’s easy to be excited about orthodontics and the future when you get to see all of these wonderful residents.”
The award’s title sponsor, American Orthodontics (AO), is the world’s largest privately held manufacturer of orthodontic products. Based in in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, AO is dedicated to providing quality products, dependable delivery, and personalized service. “AO is dedicated to supporting orthodontic education and the future of the profession, and we are very proud to sponsor the JCO Student of the Year Award recognizing the best and brightest in orthodontics,” said Director of North American Sales Todd Beaudoin.
The award is also sponsored by Dolphin, which provides 2D/3D imaging, diagnostic, treatment planning, case presentation, practice management, and patient education software for orthodontists. Mobile and Cloud applications are available.
The competition was held in two stages. Every school in the United States and Canada was allowed to nominate one current student. Each nominee submitted two letters of recommendation and a personal essay. Nominees were then given the materials from an unpublished case and asked to write a complete treatment plan, including all possible alternatives, within a two-week time frame. Three JCO board members whittled the 31 nominees down to 12 finalists in December.
Each of the finalists then submitted a complete report for a case he or she had worked on. A wider panel of JCO board members voted for the winner.
Published monthly, JCO is the only peer-reviewed publication that emphasizes the everyday clinical and management aspects of private orthodontic practice. It has remained family-owned for its entire 57-year existence.
