LASERS, MICROBIOLOGY AND DENTAL MATERIALS IN CLINICAL DENTAL PRACTICE
Professor Laurence Walsh AO
Emeritus Professor, School of Dentistry, University of Queensland &
Adjunct Professor, Griffith University, Queensland &
Chief Dental Officer, Dentroid
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | December 2024
Prof Walsh is a well known senior dental academic and dental board registered specialist in special needs dentistry. He completed his basic dental training and his PhD at the University of Queensland and then his post doctoral education at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, followed by executive education at Stanford University and Harvard University. In addition to his multiple dental and educational qualifications, Prof Walsh is a member of the Australian Institute of Safety and Health, and an associate member of the Australian Institute of Physics. He has served for over 25 years as a laser safety officer. Prof Walsh was a member of the UQ Centre for Laser Science for 11 years.
Prof Walsh has one major national awards for research and teaching excellence, and has been made a life member of the ANZ Academy of special needs dentistry, and the Australian Dental Association. In 2018, he was appointed as an officer of the order of Australia (AO) in recognition of his contributions to dental education and dental research.
Prof Walsh has served on the academic staff of the University of Queensland School of Dentistry for 40 years, including for 21 years as the research group leader in advanced technologies. Since retiring from UQ in 2020 and then being appointed as an emeritus professor, Prof Walsh has continued his involvement with specialist training and clinical research at UQ, and continued applied research in advanced technologies.
Prof Walsh was Australia’s first multi-wavelength laser user in 1988, and he has published over 100 articles and 3 textbooks on the topic of laser dentistry. He has a further 300 journal publications on other topics, and his published work has attracted over 20,000 citations in the literature. Based on citation impact, in October 2023 Prof Walsh was ranked in the top 5 Australian dental scientists of all time in the Stanford University listing of the world’s top 2% of scientists.
Prof Walsh has represented the Australian Dental Association on multiple committees of Standards Australia since 1992 (including laser safety). He has taught laser safety and clinical laser procedures around the world for over 30 years. Prof Walsh has been the president of the Australian Association for laser dentistry since 2018.
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Supportive care for people living with or beyond cancer treatment
Dr Hannah Wardill is a Hospital Research Foundation Fellow and lead of the Supportive Oncology Research Group (SORG), in the School of Biomedicine, University of Adelaide and Precision Cancer Medicine Theme, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). She is an Executive Board Member of the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer / International Society for Oral Oncology (MASCC/ISOO) and Chair of both MASCC/ISOO Patient Partnership Committee & the Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative (PaCCSC) Cancer Symptom Trials (Gut Dysfunction Node; supported by Cancer Australia).
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Trials in treating STIs, vaccines and lipid lowering medications
Since joining Paratus Clinical Research in 2022, Dr Pi Lip Seet has served as both Principal Investigator and Sub-Investigator across Phase I–IV industry-sponsored clinical trials. His research experience spans vaccines, immunology, cardiovascular and endocrine disease, respiratory medicine, gastroenterology, pain management, sleep medicine and adult psychiatry. He has been involved in multiple vaccine development programs, including RSV, influenza, COVID-19, herpes zoster and pneumococcal studies.
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Role of Community Paramedicine in Non-Emergency Presentations
Dr Robbie King is a Lecturer in paramedicine and researcher at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) Brisbane. He also continues to provide clinical care as a registered paramedic for community members served by a jurisdictional ambulance service. Dr King has gained significant experience working in an advanced practice, community paramedic style role, holding expert clinical insight into the nuances of paramedic-led community-based healthcare for non-emergency presentations. This often involves adopting a biopsychosocial approach, rather than following the biomedical model more associated with emergency medicine and paramedic culture.
