Dr. William Binnie presents commencement address

Dr. William H. Binnie will be the keynote speaker during Baylor College of Dentistry's commencement exercises at 10 a.m. May 21 at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. (See "Commencement speaker has distinguished career," below for more information about Binnie.)

Dental and Dental Hygiene Teachers of the Year will carry the college's ceremonial mace during the commencement processional and recessional. Dr. Amp Miller (BCD '73, '80), professor of restorative sciences and director of predoctoral dental curriculum in academic affairs, is the dental honoree; JoAnn Scofield (BCD '01), assistant professor in BCD's Caruth School of Dental Hygiene, is the dental hygiene honoree. (See "Employee Profile" in this issue for more information on Miller and Scofield.)

Gold medalists, scholastic honors recipients and the Dean's Honor List for the dental and dental hygiene graduating classes will be recognized during the ceremony. In addition, the Alpha Omega Scholastic Award will be announced. New this year will be the inaugural presentation of the Baylor Oral Health Foundation's Centennial Award, a $10,000 cash award given annually to the graduating dental student whom the faculty believes best demonstrates excellence in professionalism, leadership, clinical dentistry, patient management and professional service.

Clinical awards for dental and dental hygiene students will be presented during the Senior Awards Ceremony on May 20 at 4 p.m. That ceremony will be held at the Stitch Davis Auditorium on the 17^th floor of Baylor University Medical Center's A. Webb Roberts Building.

Miller and Scofield were first recognized when the BCD Alumni Association's Teacher-of-the-Year Awards were presented during the Senior Celebration Dinner Dance on May 7 at the Fairmont Hotel. The event was sponsored by BCD and the Alumni Association.

For more information about the events, contact Moira Allen, director of student affairs in student and alumni affairs, at Ext 8210.

Commencement speaker has distinguished career

Dr. William H. Binnie is Regents professor and chair of the Department of Diagnostic Sciences at Baylor College of Dentistry and vice president for academic affairs at The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center.  He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and became a U.S. citizen on July 3, 1986.

Binnie earned his BDS degree from Glasgow University in 1963. After completing an internship at the Glasgow Dental Hospital, he was the resident dental surgeon at the International Grenfell Association Hospital in Newfoundland. He earned his DDS degree in 1965 from McGill University in Montreal and went on to earn a master's degree in oral diagnosis/oral medicine and pathology from Indiana University in 1967.

Returning to the United Kingdom, Binnie joined the faculty of oral medicine and pathology at Guy's Hospital, University of London in 1967. In 1977, while senior lecturer and acting chair of the department, he spent six months as visiting lecturer at the new dental school of the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He gained his fellowship in dental surgery of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 1972. He became a member of the Royal College of Pathologists (board certification) in 1975 and was elected a fellow in 1986.

Binnie came to BCD as professor and chair of oral pathology in 1979. When oral and general pathology were combined in 1982, he chaired the new Department of Pathology. This was later merged with oral diagnosis and radiology to form the Department of Diagnostic Sciences in 1990. He has served as vice president of academic affairs for the health science center since 2000.

Binnie also holds appointments at Baylor University Medical Center and Methodist Hospitals of Dallas as a consultant pathologist. He is a clinical professor of surgery in the Division of Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and on the graduate faculty of Baylor University.

Binnie lectures extensively locally, nationally and internationally. He has published more than 70 peer review articles, 11 book chapters and is coauthor of seven textbooks on oral disease. The recipient (with others) of more than $1,200,000 of funded grants, Binnie has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine and the Journal of Evidence Based Dental Practice.

He served on the Oral Pathology and Radiology National Board Test Construction Committee from 1985 to 1989, the Pathology/Microbiology Committee and the new restructured Part II Examination Committee from 1990 to 1995. He is a curriculum consultant to the Commission on Dental Accreditation.

Binnie is a fellow of the American and International Colleges of Dentists and a diplomate of the American Board of Oral Medicine. He served as president of the International Association of Oral Pathologists from 1994 to 1996.
 

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