Penn Dental Medicine postdoctoral trainee Dennis Sourvanos, GD’23, DScD’23, was recognized at the 2023 International Photodynamic Association World Congress in Tampere, Finland, receiving the Photogenic Science Competition Award for his ongoing research characterizing the optical properties of cortical bone.

Dr. Sourvanos’ participation in the event was fortified by the guidance of mentoring committee members Timothy Zhu and Theresa Busch from the department of radiation oncology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He presented two predictive modeling platforms that he developed at Penn Dental Medicine in collaboration with Dr. Zhu’s laboratory at the Smilow Center for Translational Research: “A Novel Pre-Clinical Model to Assess Fluence Rate for Dental Oral Craniofacial Tissues” and “Three-Dimensional Printing of the Human Lung Pleural Cavity Model for PDT Malignant Mesothelioma.”

The International Photodynamic Association is an international group with a focus on photodynamic therapy and photodiagnosis. The 2023 World Congress was a forum for knowledge sharing and collaboration, offering hands-on courses and a diverse international schedule of presentations and fostering an atmosphere of global scientific dialogue across borders.