The American Association of Orthodontists Foundation (AAOF), the charitable arm of the American Association of Orthodontists, has received a $500,000 gift from the Schulman Study Group.
The Schulman group is one of the largest orthodontic study groups in the U.S. and Canada, and the funds will be donated by individual members of the group.
Designated specifically for research, the gift will fund AAOF's Post-doctoral Fellowship Award and will be used to sponsor orthodontic research in graduate schools across North America.
"Many of our students who receive these awards go on to receive National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, which ultimately benefits the orthodontic specialty, its practitioners, and most importantly, the patients we serve," said Robert Bray, DDS, a Schulman Study Group member who helped organize the gift.
"This is the largest single, first-time gift we have ever received, and the very first that has come through our new Named Awards effort," said Eric Nease, DDS, president of the AAOF. "We are grateful to the Schulman Study Group for this generous contribution, and for being the first donor in this new undertaking."
