Awards

School of Dentistry Distinguished Alumni Award - 1998

About Ronald Billings

Ronald J. Billings, D.D.S., M.S., is the director emeritus of University of Rochester Eastman Dental Center (EDC) and former special advisor on oral health issues to the senior vice president of the University’s Division of Health Affairs. He retired from the university in 1998, having spent thirty years in dentistry and led the dental center for six years.

Billings has spent his career as a teacher and researcher. He was the principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded grant to study the risk of caries onset in children and is co-investigator on an NIH program project grant to study the relationship between peptides from human parotid gland secretions and dental caries. Billings served as associate director of clinical research at the IU Oral Health Research Institute and was assistant professor of dentistry at IU from 1973-76. In addition, he was the recipient of an NIH National Research Service Award to study cariology and served on the faculties of the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas prior to joining Eastman Dental Center in 1984 as vice chair of the Department of Community Dentistry.

In the dental community, Billings has served on the AADS Council of Deans, the New York State Council of Dental Deans, and the board of directors of the 7th District Dental Society of the State of New York. He is a fellow of the American College of Dentists and of the Pierre Fauchard Academy. Also, he was the recipient of the Chamber of Commerce Quality Council’s 1998 Greater Rochester Quality Award and the 1998 Indiana University School of Dentistry distinguished Alumni Award.

Billings received three degrees from Indiana University (IU), including his B.A. (1966), D.D.S. (1969), and M.S.D. (1973).