Congratulations to our 2024 Rowden White Scholars!

Congratulations to our PhD students who were awarded the 2024 Rowden White Scholarship! This scholarship was established with a donation from Sir Alfred Edward Rowden White and is offered to students undertaking research studies with Melbourne Dental School, Melbourne Medical School, Melbourne School of Engineering, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences or Faculty of Science.

Learn more about our six scholars below and see what projects they are involved in:

Rowden White - Amin Mohamed 

Project title: Direct Printed Aligners mechanical and cytotoxic properties

Amin Mohamed has joined the Orthodontic group at MDS as a PhD student, under supervision of Professor Paolo Cattaneo, and co-supervision of Professor Marie Cornelis. Amin competed his Bachelor’s degree in Dentistry at University of Khartoum (Sudan), and his master degree in Orthodontics at Xi’an Jiaotong University (China). Amin is a dedicated young researcher with eight published research articles in peer-reviewed journals. His PhD research project is aimed to investigate the Direct Printed Aligners mechanical and cytotoxic properties.

Rowden White - Stephanie Shields 

Project Title: Molar incisor hypomineralisation: aetiology and impact

Stephanie Shields is a specialist paediatric dentist currently undertaking a PhD in molar incisor hypomineralisation.

She has a graduate research appointment at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and works clinically in private practice in Ascot Vale. Steph completed her Doctor of Clinical Dentistry in Paediatric Dentistry at the University of Melbourne in 2023. She graduated from her dental degree undertaken at Griffith University in Queensland in 2012 and then worked for nearly a decade in private practice, including 6 years in Darwin. Steph is currently serving as treasurer of the Australasian Academy of Paediatric Dentistry.

Rowden White - Dharini Ravindra 

Project Title: The Development and Dysbiosis of the Oral Microbiome

Dr Dharini Ravindra completed a Bachelor of Science followed by a Doctor of Dental Medicine at the University of Sydney. After several years in private practice in rural NSW, she completed a Doctor of Clinical Dentistry in Paediatric Dentistry at the University of Melbourne in 2022. Her DCD research focused on the effects of early childhood antibiotic use on dental development and was published in Pediatrics. Following speciality training, she worked as the senior registrar at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Dharini currently works as a private paediatric dentist at South Eastern Children’s Dentistry in Melbourne whilst completing her PhD part-time.

Rowden White - Satutya Wicaksono

Project Title: Investigating the Interplay between Alcohol and Candida albicans in Oral Epithelial Carcinogenesis

Dr. Satutya Wicaksono is a PhD student in the Oral Medicine–Oral Cancer (OMOC) Research Group at Melbourne Dental School, The University of Melbourne. He holds a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) and a Master’s in Immunology from Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia. He is also an Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) doctoral scholar and a lecturer in the Department of Oral Medicine at Universitas Airlangga.

His doctoral research explores the interplay between alcohol metabolism and Candida albicans in oral cancer (OC) development, using molecular techniques to analyse the genotypes, metabolic potential, and virulence factors of this oral fungus in relation to alcohol consumption in OC cohorts. His project also involves collaboration with electrical engineers at The University of Melbourne to develop a point-of-care diagnostic device for detecting alcohol metabolism rates, aimed at informing personalised oral cancer risk assessment.

Rowden White - Syed Ameer Hamza 

Project Title: Development of Oral Gonorrhea Models for Screening Novel Compounds

Dr. Syed Ameer Hamza is currently pursuing a PhD at the Melbourne Dental School under the supervision of A/Prof. Antonio Celentano. His research expertise includes ELISA, PCR, cell cultures, and microbiology. With a background in dentistry, he holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees and has served as a senior registrar in Pakistan. Dr. Hamza has seven years of research experience and has authored several scientific articles based on his clinical and experimental research. His primary focus during his PhD is to understand the infection dynamics of Oral Gonorrhea infection and develop a model to screen novel treatment options.

Rowden White - Brian Ngokwe 

Project title: Investigating Non-Smoking, Non-Drinking Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders (NSND-OPMDS)

I am Brian Ngokwe, a current first year PhD student at the Melbourne Dental School of the University of Melbourne. I obtained my DMD with honours from my home country Cameroon and I got My MSc in Biomedical Sciences in Dentistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem finishing as Summa Cum Laude.

My research is based on early diagnosis of oral precancer lesions which will prevent the apparition of oral cancers which have very high mortalities, with 1 out of every 2 patients with oral cancers likely to die in the next 5 years. To better study and understand these oral precancers we intend to use organoids which are in vitro 3-dimensional models, they are faithful models with close genomic constitution to the oral cancers, albeit being very costly.