Tien-Min Gabriel Chu, PhD, DDS
Associate Dean for Research, Director of Graduate Dental Materials Program, Professor
Welcome to the Indiana University School of Dentistry! I am eager to share with you some highlights of Indiana’s dental school, as a proud alumna of our graduate programs, and as the 10th dean of this great school.
The main dental school facility is in the heart of the campus of Indiana University Indianapolis – a vibrant, urban public research university campus in our capital city. From the birth of the campus, Indiana University School of Dentistry has played an important role in our university, advancing the tripartite mission of education, research, and service. We also proudly offer undergraduate programs in the allied dental professions at IU Fort Wayne.
We continue to attract the best and brightest students. Each day, more than 700 students in our DDS, dental specialty education, PhD, dental hygiene, dental assisting, and dental laboratory technology programs light up IUSD’s classrooms, laboratories, and clinics, and serve our citizens in hospitals, public health clinics, and private practices in the community. Our students excel, with exceptional first-time pass rates for the national board and clinical licensure exams across all programs. Students practice their skills and gain essential clinical experience starting as early as the first year. Our D1s learn four-handed dentistry skills in the first semester to prepare them for assisting roles in the clinic, as they develop knowledge and skills in the preclinical labs. As D2 students, they have opportunities to apply their clinical skills in foundational clinic rotations. Our Comprehensive Care Clinic model supports patient-centered care and student success. Students learn from dental specialists as well as experienced general dentists, with close personal attention. Our student-to-faculty ratios in the clinic range from 5:1 to 7:1 depending on the level of learner and the complexity of the dentistry. Beginning in 2024, all D4 students participate in Team Clinic, serving as the leader of the oral health care team and providing collaborative team-based care with dental assistants and dental hygienists as they will in practice after graduation. Our practice-ready graduates go on to deliver essential oral health care here in Indiana, across the country, and around the globe.
Our superb faculty excel as clinicians, teachers, and scholars who create and disseminate new knowledge. This past academic year, members of our faculty received the largest federal research grant in the school’s history, to support the training of students and faculty in clinical research methods. In addition, we have more than doubled our federal research funding and were awarded the highest number of active multi-year federal grants in more than 20 years.
In our clinics, we have expanded access to specialty level services, such as orofacial pain management, dental sleep medicine, geriatric dentistry, craniofacial orthodontics, and multidisciplinary TMJ care.
And thanks to the generosity of our many donors and friends, we have invested philanthropy funds to integrate digital dental technologies into our educational programs and into scholarships that support and reward student success. We have kicked off major renovations that will culminate in a modern and updated orthodontics clinic, updated research labs, new student clinical labs, the only special care clinic dedicated to treating adults with disabilities in Indiana, and a new Commons that provides a welcoming space for students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Our commitment to the community is unwavering. We are devoted to caring for the most vulnerable and underserved, some of whom have complex needs. Our faculty, staff and students provide expert care in our pediatric dentistry clinics at Riley Hospital for Children, in partner sites throughout Indiana in our Community-Based Dental Education program, in local hospitals, at schools, and in our dental clinics in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.
And finally, this year, we celebrate IUSD’s 145th anniversary. Over these past 145 years, we have excelled at our tripartite mission: educating oral health care professionals, conducting innovative research to advance oral and overall health, and serving our community and the world.
Indiana University School of Dentistry is an exciting and caring place to work, learn and grow! We invite you to join us and see it for yourself. Please contact our admissions office (students) or development office (alumni and friends) for a visit to Indiana’s only dental school.
- Dean Carol Anne Murdoch-Kinch
