Dr. Douglas Peterson, member of the UConn School of Dental Medicine faculty since 1989, will accept the UConn Health Board of Directors Faculty Recognition Award during Monday’s commencement exercises.
Peterson is a professor of oral medicine and co-chair of the Head and Neck Cancer/Oral Oncology Program in UConn Health’s Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.
His primary academic responsibilities throughout his career have been directed to oral management of the medically complex patient, with emphasis on oral complications in cancer patients. He has contributed to development of interprofessional models for patient care, research, and health professional education in this context for more than 40 years. He has lectured extensively at the regional, national, and international levels throughout this time.
“Doug Peterson has been an indispensable part of the success of the UConn School of Dental Medicine, as well as the greater University through his work in the oral cancer realm,” says Dr. R. Lamont “Monty” MacNeil, dean of the UConn School of Dental Medicine. “He is internationally recognized and certainly most deserving of this honor from the UConn Health Board of Directors.”
Peterson is author of approximately 165 peer-reviewed publications and 150 abstracts, is editor of two books, and co-editor of a monograph for the Journal of the National Institute. He has been involved in translational and clinical trial research in the oncology setting throughout his career, including serving as principal investigator on two multi-center, international clinical trials involving drug development for oral mucositis in cancer patients. He also has served as principal or co-investigator on many National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, as well as primary mentor via the NIH K Award program. Additionally, he has been a reviewer of grant applications for the NIH on a frequent basis during the past 30 years, including study section chair for several panels.
“I am so very appreciative for the privilege I have here at the University of Connecticut to contribute to enhancing oral as well as overall health in medically complex patients,” Peterson says. “The opportunities in interprofessional education, patient care, and research continue to be extraordinary, for which I am most grateful.”
Peterson holds both a Ph.D. in pathology and a D.M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining the UConn faculty, he spent 14 years at the University of Maryland and has served as a consultant to the NIH and an associate medical staff member at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Oncology Center. He is a fellow in dental surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (Scotland), internationally recognized as the highest college award in dentistry.
