Dr. Van P. Thompson is Professor Emeritus at the King’s College London Dental Institute, former Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomaterials and Biomimetics at New York University, and a longtime member of IADR/AADOCR. Through a generous donation, Thompson recently provided the initial funding to establish the IADR Dianne Rekow Mentoring in Science Award in honor of his late wife. Rekow was the 88th President of the IADR (2011-2012) and the 35th President of the AADOCR (2006-2007). She passed away on August 11, 2022. Through her legacy, the goal of the new award is to provide resources that will enable the mentoring of a promising early career researcher by a mid-career female faculty in the dental, oral, and craniofacial sciences.
What prompted you to create this award in recognition of Dianne?
Despite her many achievements and awards, Dianne always maintained that her greatest accomplishment and satisfaction was the mentoring she provided women students and faculty during her career. This was in part because she did not have women mentors in hers. She was the first woman in many areas after her graduation from the engineering program at the University of Minnesota. Being the first woman in several areas of business she struggled. In her mid-career she realized how critical mentoring was to women's career development in so many fields and she sought to change this. After her untimely death one of her former mentees, Grace de Souza of the University of Louisville approached me as the then President of the Women in Science Network, about a symposium honoring Dianne’s mentoring, The symposium was to be presented by four of her mentees. I was pleased with the idea and offered my input.
Why did you decide to collaborate with Women in Science Network?
As the above symposium was being finalized the Women in Science Network reached out to me about my interest and possible support for a mentoring award in Dianne’s name. The award was to be unique in providing support for both the selected mentee and their mentor. Dianne would have been pleased with this combined recognition.
Was mentoring a passion of Dianne’s?
Dianne devoted herself to mentoring women. She felt that too often women went unappreciated in their competencies and abilities. Historically, she felt the women had to work much harder than men to achieve the same position. Even when in a similar position to a man, the women’s input or ideas were often ignored and later appeared to be championed by a man. She pushed her mentees to be recognized and appreciated by a careful approach to presenting their thoughts and ideas. She was particularly concerned by the lack of women on scientific programs and particularly at international meetings.
With increased donations for the award, what do you hope will be the impact?
The Dianne Rekow Mentoring in Science Award is looking to provide a substantial monetary award each year. The intent is to support the scientific program of both the selected mentee and their mentor, which would help further the careers of both individuals. Supporting this combination of awardees will require building a significant amount of funding over several years which I intend to raise with the help of her former mentees, interested individuals, and corporations.