Patricia Diaz named UB Distinguished Professor

By SARAH SMYKOWSKI

Renowned oral biology researcher and professor Patricia Diaz, DDS, MSc, PhD, has received the University at Buffalo (UB) Distinguished Professor Award in recognition of her scholarly excellence.

The UB Distinguished Professor Award is an honor reserved for full professors who have demonstrated extraordinary distinction in their field. Diaz was selected by former UB president Satish K. Tripathi to receive the award in August 2026. She will be honored at the university’s fall Celebration of Excellence.

“I am extremely proud of Dr. Diaz for being named a UB Distinguished Professor,” said Marcelo Araujo, DDS, MS, PhD, dean of the School of Dental Medicine. “As a researcher and mentor, her exceptional intellectual rigor and creative vision create an environment where ambitious, collaborative learning thrives. She is highly deserving of this recognition, and I am confident she will continue to bring distinction to UB and the broader academic community.”

“I am honored to receive the UB Distinguished Professor Award,” said Diaz. “This meaningful recognition serves as encouragement to keep mentoring the next generation of scientists and continue asking important research questions so that we can improve lives.”

Diaz is the Empire Innovation Professor of Oral Biology and Sunstar Robert J. Genco Endowed Chair at the UB School of Dental Medicine. In addition to her teaching and research pursuits, she serves as director of the UB Microbiome Center.

Diaz’s scholarship focuses on understanding the ecology of oral microbiome communities – how interactions among microorganisms and between microbes and tissues impact health and disease development. With a strong focus on the connections between microbial ecology and host biology, Diaz’s research has established the link between the microbiome and gum disease and advanced our understanding of why cancer therapy causes complications in the oral cavity.

“Across my lab’s research areas, we’re focused on connecting microbial ecology to host biology, encouraging the field to see oral disease as the result of dynamic interactions between microbial communities and the tissues they inhabit,” Diaz says. “These findings can ultimately lead to better methods of preventing and treating oral diseases.”

 Over her career, Diaz has been awarded 17 federal grants totaling approximately $14M from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including long-standing R-type grants from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). About $10 million of this funding was awarded while at UB. She has also received funding from multiple institutional and industry sponsors.

Diaz is regarded as an intellectual leader in oral microbiology. Over her career, Diaz has co-authored 67 peer-reviewed publications that have more than 10,000 citations and an H-index of 47 (Google Scholar). She has been published in prestigious publications such as Microbiome, the ISME Journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Science Translational Medicine and in top journals of the craniofacial field such as the Journal of Dental Research, Periodontology 2000, Journal of Periodontology and the Journal of the American Dental Association, among others.

Diaz served as program officer of the IADR Women in Science Network from 2012-15 and just completed her three-year term as president of the Western New York branch of the American Society of Microbiology. She also serves as an editorial board member on numerous dental journals, including associate editor for the Journal of Periodontology. In 2025, she received the International Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research (IADR) Distinguished Scientist Award in Research in Oral Biology, one of the highest honors the IADR bestows.

Diaz holds a PhD in microbiology from the University of Adelaide, Australia, and a DDS from the CES University in Medellín, Colombia. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in oral microbiology at the NIDCR/NIH and holds a certificate and Master’s in periodontology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She joined UB in 2020.