Dechow heads biomedical sciences

On Oct. 1, 2012, Dr. Paul C. Dechow became the new chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at A&M Baylor College of Dentistry.

Dechow has served the department as vice chair since 2009 and was director of the graduate program in biomedical sciences from 1996 to 2009. The college’s liaison with UT Southwestern Medical Center on its Clinical Research Scholars Program and Clinical and Translational Science Award, Dechow became a professor in biomedical sciences in 2004. He joined the dental school faculty in 1986 as assistant professor in what was then the Department of Anatomy, subsequently becoming associate professor in the newly created Department of Biomedical Sciences in 1993.

Highly involved in the evidence-based dentistry initiative at TAMBCD, Dechow teaches predoctoral and graduate courses. He has mentored numerous master’s degree and doctoral students and is active in curriculum development in the predoctoral program and the biomedical sciences graduate program. He is a graduate faculty member of Texas A&M Health Science Center.

Dechow’s research interests focus on the growth, adaptation and evolution of the craniofacial skeleton and related soft tissues. Currently his work concentrates on the structural properties, biomechanics and modeling of the craniofacial skeleton. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and industry. Dechow has served as president of the Clinical and Translational Sciences Network of the International Association for Dental Research and as president of the Texas Association of Biological Anthropologists.

Dechow earned a Ph.D. in anatomy at the University of Chicago in 1980 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in craniofacial biology and human growth and development at the University of Michigan in 1984.