The profession joined to congratulate Professor Chris Lynch, Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry RCSI, who has been elected to the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), the highest academic honour in Ireland.

Mr Lynch is Professor and Consultant in Restorative Dentistry in the Cork University Dental School & Hospital, College of Medicine and Health, University College Cork. He is the third dentist to be admitted as a Member of the RIA and the first in more than 80 years.

Edward Leo Sheridan, who become President of RCSI and is forever associated with the Faculty of Dentistry through the prestigious Edward Leo Sheridan lecture, was the last dentist to be admitted in 1940).

A UCC dental graduate (BDS 1999), Professor Lynch worked at Cardiff University as Consultant and Professor before returning to Cork University Dental School & Hospital in 2017.

With a distinguished track record of excellence in clinical dental education and research, he was awarded the Award of Excellence in Dental Education from the Association for Dental Education in Europe in 2014, the premier European award in dental education, a Principal Fellowship from the Higher Education Academy UK in 2019 and, in 2020, one of Ireland’s inaugural National Teaching & Learning Research Fellowships.

This year, Professor Lynch was awarded the prestigious international Ivar Mjör Prize for Practice-Based Research from the Network for Practice-Based Research at the International Association for Dental Research. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Dentistry, a leading international dental journal, since 2011.

Following election by his colleagues, Professor Lynch became Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in March.