Brent Larson named 2017 Professor of the Year
Brent E. Larson, DDS, MS, University of Minnesota School of Dentistry Professor and Director of the Division of Orthodontics, received the 2017 Century Club Professor of the Year award. The Century Club Professor of the Year is the School of Dentistry’s highest honor and is awarded each year to a faculty member in recognition of outstanding contributions to the School of Dentistry in the areas of education, service and research.
Dr. Larson received his doctor of dental surgery degree from the University of Minnesota in 1981 and completed a general practice residency in 1992 and a MS degree and certification in orthodontics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1987. He spent three years as an orthodontist in the U.S. Air Force, and then joined the staff at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester where he became involved in teaching and education. During his time at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Larson served as program director in orthodontics and received several teacher of the year awards. In 1996, Dr. Larson established a private practice in Rochester, MN, where he continues to practice one day each week. In 2004 he returned to full-time academics as associate professor and division director of orthodontics at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry. In 2011, Dr. Larson was awarded associate professor with tenure and then awarded professor with tenure in 2016. Dr. Larson serves on numerous school committees and leads the School of Dentistry Institutional Effectiveness Committee.
In 2012, Dr. Larson was awarded both the Distinguished Dental Alumnus Award, in recognition of exceptional achievement, and the University Innovations Award, which celebrates researchers whose work has been patented, licensed to a company or used to form a startup. Dr. Larson continues his research in assessing orthodontic treatment strategies and outcomes using dimensional tools, and developing new tools for outcome evaluation and treatment simulation. His research was recognized again in 2015 when he received the School of Dentistry’s Paper of the Year Award for Clinical Sciences.
Dr. Larson serves his profession on local, regional and national levels. Locally and regionally, Dr. Larson has served as president of the Zumbro Valley Dental Society, the Minnesota Association of Orthodontics and the Midwestern Society of Orthodontists. Nationally, Dr. Larson has served as member and chair of the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) Council on Orthodontic Education and chair of the first AAO Task Force on Recruitment and Retention of Orthodontic Faculty, a task force he still serves on. Dr. Larson will serve as AAO president for 2018-2019.