July 20, 2006
Couple creates fellowship with pledge
Dr. Thomas Morton, a professor in the School of Dentistry , and his wife Dr. Kyoko Awamura, a children’s dentist in Bellevue and part-time faculty member, have pledged $25,000, which will be partially matched by the UW, to establish an endowed fellowship for Pediatric Dentistry/Oral Biology Leadership in Children’s Oral Health Research.
The new endowment will provide support for graduate students who are jointly enrolled in the Department of Oral Biology’s Ph.D. program and the Department of Pediatric Dentistry’s specialty degree program.
Morton said the couple wanted to provide support for graduate students who will pursue academic research careers in dentistry.
They hope the fellowship will encourage the graduates of this combined program (pediatric dentists with Ph.D.s in oral biology) to become leaders in research who will change the profession. “We want to establish a program that is nationally unique to the University of Washington and of enough significance to the care of children with oral disease that it will attract additional support from other donors,” he said.
Morton, professor of oral biology and oral medicine, and Awamura, a 1986 School of Dentistry graduate who also earned a master’s degree in public health and a specialty degree in pediatric dentistry, all from the UW, made the pledge as part of the Faculty Staff Retiree Campaign for Students.
