The USC School of Dentistry's Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology (CCMB) was established in October of 1989, under the direction of Harold C. Slavkin. He became the sixth director of the National Institute of Dental Research in 1995. He initiated a strategic planning process that resulted in the release of the Institute's first strategic plan in 1997. The organization was renamed the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in 1998 to reflect the scope of scientific research and training supported by the Institute. During his tenure at the NIDCR, the budget of the Institute grew by $110 million and this year the Institute received the largest single-year budget increase in its history. He returns to his alma mater as the 11th dean of the USC School of Dentistry in August 2000 after fulfilling his commitment to NIDCR.

Through his monthly column in the Journal of the American Dental Association and his many other publications and addresses, Slavkin outlines the scientific advances in our knowledge of the human genome, of molecular and biological processes, and of information and other technologies that are shaping the profession's future.

He also shares his vision of the opportunities in the next century, opportunities that include increasing our understanding of the link between oral infection and systemic disease and creating new diagnostics and novel therapeutics to improve the quality of health care in what he refers to as the coming "biotechnology century."

"The competencies that we need are far more sophisticated than existed when I was a dental student, and was receiving, at the time, the finest education in the world at USC," he says.

A 1965 graduate of the USC School of Dentistry, Slavkin joined the USC's faculty in 1968, following postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA School of Medicine and with the department of biochemistry at USC. He pursued his scientific interests as the principal investigator or co-principal on 27 research grants while participating in the education of future scientists as a teacher and mentor of students in dentistry, the College, the Gerontology Center, and the Graduate School. Between 1974 and 1995, he was a mentor for 42 graduate and postdoctoral fellows. 

As laboratory chief for the Laboratory for Developmental Biology, he led a productive scientific collaboration between faculty of the School of Dentistry and of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. He was instrumental in establishing the first graduate program in Craniofacial Biology in the country, which today enrolls 67 students. Slavkin, the first holder of the George and Mary Lou Boone Chair in Craniofacial Molecular Biology, was the founding director of the school's Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, located on the USC's Health Sciences Campus. In tandem, his wife Lois founded the Center to Advance Precollege Science Education at USC. 

"American dentistry is the best in the world and its preeminence is in no small measure due to USC's contribution," says Slavkin, adding with a smile, "and perhaps the best is yet to come." 

Charles Shuler, D.M.D., Ph.D. was appointed Director in June of 1995 up to the present, becoming the second person to hold the George and Mary Lou Boone Chair in Craniofacial Molecular Biology when Dr. Slavkin became the new Director of the National Institutes of Dental Research in Washington, D.C.