I am delighted to send a very warm season’s greetings to all staff, students, alumni, partners and collaborators as we come to the end of 2020.
As we approach the end of 2020, it is so important we take the time to reflect on the successes of the year, as well as the challenges we collectively have overcome. This year we have been faced with some of the most difficult circumstances any of us will have faced in our personal and professional lives, but I am beyond proud that the staff and students in our faculty met these head on, and through sheer hard work and commendable ingenuity continued to deliver our core mission of education and research and commitments to our students and patients.
Below on this webpage you will find an advent calendar where we will celebrate the 12 days of Christmas: each day from December 1 we will reveal some of our success stories from every month in 2020. Looking back at these stories I am reminded that despite the hurdles, our faculty adapted and continued to deliver the world-class education and research we are known for across the world. When we started to gather the stories to be shared, I was also amazed at the breadth and depth of achievements we delivered during such a challenging year. We were not able to include every success story, and apologies to those whose achievements were not included, but we hope the ones we selected give cause for celebration for what has been achieved in 2020.
Looking forward to next year, preparations for the REF 2021 will intensify as we ready ourselves to demonstrate the high quality of research at the faculty and we will welcome completion of our new clinical skills facilities in the Guy’s Tower. Next year is already shaping up to be a memorable and productive one.
But before we head into the New Year, I’d like to thank everyone at the faculty once again for the work they do every day. Have a restful, happy and peaceful holiday period – you all deserve it! With luck, at some point in 2021 we can all come together and reflect on what a remarkable year 2020 has been and celebrate how this faculty came together to overcome the many obstacles this year brought us.
Professor Mike Curtis
Executive Dean
Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences