The Dr. John Rugh Student Research Travel Award Endowment fund was established in December 2021 in honor of Dr. Rugh’s immeasurable contributions in academic teaching, research and leadership in the School of Dentistry at UT Health San Antonio.

The endowment fund is designed to provide monetary awards for dental and dental hygiene students whose abstracts have been accepted at the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) Annual Meeting. Our student’s presence and research presentations at these meetings allowed them to meet and establish national and international contacts which significantly facilitated their career goals.

This endowment fund honors the school’s graduates who engaged with faculty in research and presented their research at the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) annual meetings during the school’s first 50 years. These student researchers were an essential element in helping to establish the school as an internationally recognized research institution.

In less than 10 years after the school’s first graduating class, it was in the top 10 dental schools in America, with respect to the number of research abstracts presented at the annual AADR meeting.

This endowment also honors Dr. Rugh for his tremendous accomplishments that span more than 44 years in the School of Dentistry. Dr. Rugh notably founded the Dental School’s Facial Pain and Research Clinic; served as Director of Research from 1991-1997 and established the Graduation with Honors in Research program; served as Chair for the Department of Orthodontics from 1997-2010; and in 2008, with a five-year NIH grant, established the School’s Evidence-Based Practice Program which included an online searchable Oral Health Library of Critically Appraised Topics (CATs) that became a worldwide resource for up-to-date, evidence-based oral health information for practitioners and the public. The University of Texas Academy of Health Science Education presented Dr. Rugh with a first-place award at the Innovations in Health Science Education conference for the CATs initiative in 2013; he was presented the ADA/AADR Evidence-Based Dentistry Award in 2016. He held many national and international leadership positions including President of the American Association of Dental Research (1994 – 1995). 

Dr. Rugh was born and raised in Corvallis, Oregon. He received his PhD from the University of California at Santa Barbara and completed a four-year postdoctoral program at Claremont Graduate School. He married his high school sweetheart, Annie Taylor, who Dr. Rugh said was a critical player in each of his many successful programs and his academic career.

We invite you to make a gift today! It is Dr. Rugh’s personal goal to achieve a $500,000 endowment total to make possible 15 to 17 student research travel awards annually. Donors will be recognized by name and graduation date on the Donor Plaque displayed in the Dental School, and on the Student Research Honors Website.

Please email or phone Alex Castañeda, Director of Development in the School of Dentistry, at 210.567-6536 for additional information.