Professor Alastair Sloan receives Alan Docking IADR Science Award for dentistry research

Professor Alastair Sloan, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Collaboration) and recipient of the prestigious Alan Docking IADR Science Award.

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Collaboration) Professor Alastair Sloan has been awarded the 2025 Alan Docking IADR Science Award, the highest accolade from the Australian and New Zealand Division of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR ANZ).

The award acknowledges his sustained leadership and significant long-term contributions to the field of dental research.

Professor Sloan’s research focuses on tissue repair and regeneration, the role of stem cells, development of innovative materials for clinical use, and 3D organotypic culture systems for tissue repair and engineering.

The award was announced at the IADR ANZ Annual General Meeting in October 2025, where Professor Sloan also stepped into the role of IADR ANZ President.

Professor Sloan described the award as “quite a surprise”.

“I am honoured to receive the Alan Docking IADR Science Award, and I am thankful to those who nominated me,” Professor Sloan said.

“It is also a great privilege for me, after serving as Vice-President, to now step into the role of President for the IADR Australia and New Zealand division.”

The nomination for Professor Sloan’s award highlighted his “important and sustained contributions to oral health research over the past 25 years. In particular, his work on dental pulp and dental pulp stem cells has been field leading and exceedingly well cited”.

At the time of the award, Professor Sloan had supervised 26 research higher degree students to completion and was supervising eight PhD students.

Professor Sloan joined the University of Melbourne in 2020 as the Head of Melbourne Dental School in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. Prior to this appointment he was Dean of the School of Dentistry at Cardiff University in the UK where he also co-led a large and highly active research group with his long-time collaborator Professor Rachel Waddington.

In his current role as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Collaboration), he provides leadership and academic direction to enhance the quality and impact of research through collaboration and a comprehensive understanding of the national and international research landscape.