The Journal of Clinical Orthodontics named Bianca Lau, DDS, the 2023 Eugene L. Gottlieb, JCO Student of the Year Award winner.
The Journal of Clinical Orthodontics named Bianca Lau, DDS, from the University of the Pacific as the winner of the 2023 Eugene L. Gottlieb JCO Student of the Year Award, presented by American Orthodontics.
Lau was selected from 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 over $8,000 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 co-residents,” said 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.”
Lau grew up in San Francisco and attended the University of the Pacific’s accelerated pre-dental advantage program, which included 2 years of undergraduate study and a 3-year dental program. A complete profile of Lau will be published in a future issue of JCO and posted on JCO’s Facebook page.
Lau is the eighth Student of the Year award winner. The award program grew out of JCO’s central mission to specialize in the clinical side of orthodontics. JCO was founded in 1967 by Dr Eugene L. Gottlieb, after whom the Student of the Year Award is named. Gottlieb died in 2018 at age 99.
“JCO is the clinician’s journal,” said Neal Kravitz, JCO Editor. “So it is fitting that since most of the other awards are for research, we award the clinician’s resident award.”
The award’s title sponsor, American Orthodontics (AO), is the world’s largest privately held manufacturer of orthodontic products.
“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 Todd Beaudoin, AO’s director of North American sales.
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 2 weeks. In December, three JCO board members whittled the 31 nominees down to 12 finalists.
Each of the finalists then submitted a complete report for a case they had worked on. A wider panel of JCO board members voted for the winner.
Photo courtesy of JCO
