The World Federation of KSIMC

Dr Muhammad F. Walji, PhD, of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Dentistry, has been chosen to be a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He will be presented with his award from the President of the United States, Barack Obama later this year inshAllah.

This is an incredible achievement for both Muhammad and for our community. This honour was given to only 105 people this year, and Muhammad was chosen due to his research in using informatics to improve the quality and safety of oral health. 

Muhammad is an associate dean for Technology Services and Informatics at the School of Dentistry and also serves as a professor in the Department of Diagnostic and Biomedical Sciences. He is also associate director of the National Center for Cognitive Informatics and Decision Making in Healthcare at The UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics where he studied.

He is the lead of the team working on creating & developing the ‘BigMouth Dental Data Repository’ which holds identity-protected data from electronic health records of more than 2 million patients treated at six dental institutions. In addition to all of this, he also serves as the chair of the Consortium for Oral Health Research and Informatics.

Speaking about him receiving the award, the School of Dentistry Dean John Valenza, DDS, said ‘As each year has passed, his national reputation has grown, and this award only confirms his accomplishments and the high regard in which he is held by the health sciences community and now by the president of the United States. We here at the School of Dentistry are so very proud of him!’

The World Federation congratulates Muhammad on this fantastic achievement and we pray his success continues in the future, inshAllah. 

You can read more about Muhammad’s work here. 

If you would like to share with us any achievements by our community members, please email us at [email protected]