Professor Petros Papagerakis
Melbourne Dental School is the latest stop of my academic journey. What an amazing place to be! I am honoured to be here and lead our School into the future.
I started my career in Thessaloniki, Greece where I graduated from the Aristotle University Dental School. After a year of private practice, I continued my journey in Paris, France where I got immersed in the world of hospital paediatric dentistry and later the universe of mineralised tissue research.
During my MSc and PhD, I spent numerous hours working to answer many questions and trying to unveil many mysteries. What are the pathogenic mechanisms for oral tumorigenesis? How do vitamin D rickets affect tooth and bone development in children? I finally learned that the most important thing we gain from graduate studies is the development of critical thinking. What a privilege to have the opportunity to enhance our problem-solving and judgement capacities. Both are so essential for excellence in practicing dentistry and being an academician and that is what Melbourne Dental School thrives to offer to all our students and staff.
My journey next brought me to the USA and Canada, where I specialised in rare diseases, dental, and molecular genetics and paediatric dentistry. For over 20 years in North America, I worked as full-time academician, administrator and clinician and concluded that nothing is impossible! We need to dream big and work collaboratively for creating impact to the society. And that fits well with the vision of the University of Melbourne.
My research has evolved throughout the years, and I’m currently trying to understand the links between lifestyle traits (sleep, nutrition, biological rhythms) and precision oral-systemic health. I’m constantly thinking: “How can we design and offer personalised diagnosis and treatment to our patients?” and “How can we improve patients’ quality of life?”
Being an academician, my favourite part of my job is working for and with people, with a special focus on students. How can we provide innovative curriculum opportunities to create unique dental professionals, entrepreneurs and scientists? How can we nurture individual inspirations and offer personalised education? How can we promote equity, diversity and inclusion practices daily on all levels? How can we promote communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity for all of us?
Now that I’m leading Melbourne Dental School, a premium world dental school, I believe that we can all team together and transform today’s dentistry into the dental science of the future. Let’s all put our talents to work collaboratively for fearless innovation. Let’s become a world-renowned clinical trials reference centre, a premium research centre with societal impact, a school with a model innovative curriculum.
Most importantly, let’s be a school where everyone feels they belong and wants to contribute. My goal is to make our School an even more inclusive, transparent, accountable and humanitarian place where we value all people. I can’t wait to hear from you and work with all of you at our School and external stakeholders to lead dentistry’s transformation.
Welcome to Melbourne Dental School!
I invite you to explore our School's website.
Professor Petros Papagerakis
Head, Melbourne Dental School