UF oral epidemiologist elected to national organization

Scott L. Tomar, D.M.D., Dr.P.H., has been elected vice president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry.

Tomar will automatically become the organization's president in 2009. The association is the world's largest multidisciplinary professional organization focused on improving public oral health.

Tomar is a professor and chairman of the department of community dentistry and behavioral science at the University of Florida College of Dentistry. He earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine from Temple University, his Master of Public Health from Columbia University and his Doctor of Public Health in oral epidemiology from the University of Michigan.

Tomar studies the relationship of tobacco use to the development of oral diseases and cancers. He has served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health and has been a consultant to the World Health Organization, the CDC, the National Institutes of Health and the Florida Comprehensive Cancer Control Initiative.