Keynote Speaker

Jacques is the Donald A. Kerr Endowed Professor of Dentistry and serves as the Dean of the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. He has a joint appointment as Professor of Otolaryngology (Medical School) and as Affiliate Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He is Past-President of the American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR). Jacques served as Chair of the Oral Dental and Craniofacial Sciences (ODCS) NIH study section and is a member of the National Advisory Dental and Craniofacial Research Council (NADRC). He has published 245 peer-reviewed papers, 15 book chapters, and has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2002. He has served as Co-Director of the University of Michigan Head Neck SPORE funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Jacques is the past-Chair of the Section on Dentistry & Oral Health Sciences of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), Fellow of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) and Fellow of the AAAS. He received the Distinguished Scientist Award, the William J. Gies Award, and the Hatton Award from the International Association for Dental Research (IADR). Jacques is Associate Editor of the Journal of Dental Research and member of several editorial boards. His research interests are in the study of the pathobiology of cancer stem cells in head neck squamous cell carcinoma and salivary gland cancer, as well the studies of mechanisms regulating dental pulp stem cell fate.