CDM Alumna Soomin Park Receives Henry W. Thorton/SCADA Fellowship as She Pursues Clinician-Scientist Training

Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (CDM) alumna Dr. Soomin Park, DDS ’24, received the Henry M. Thornton/SCADA Fellowship Award, which provides financial support to SCADA alumni pursuing advanced dental education and considering careers in academic dentistry or dental research.

Park is currently in her second year of the combined PhD and orthodontics training program at the University of California, Los Angeles as part of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) Dental Scientist PhD Program (DSPP), a federally funded initiative designed to train clinician-scientists through integrated specialty residency and PhD research training. The fellowship supports her education and research during the program.

At UCLA, Park is conducting bioengineering research focused on tissue regeneration and oral health technologies. One project examines how stem cell-derived particles can be delivered through a specialized hydrogel system to support skeletal muscle regeneration. Another involves developing a custom-fit smart dental guard that uses sensor technology to monitor oral movements such as teeth grinding, clenching, and tapping. The device is being studied for its potential applications in detecting conditions such as sleep apnea and temporomandibular disorders. 

Mentorship and the CDM Network 

“I have tremendous respect for Soomin, and of the hundreds of dentists I’ve worked with at the NIDCR, I would put her in the top one percent,” said Dr. James Lipton, Park’s mentor and a DDS and PhD graduate of CDM. “She is incredibly inquisitive, intelligent, and creative. She could really do anything she wants. I think she will become a future leader in dental research and dental education. And if she chooses to practice, she will be a superb orthodontist.” 

Lipton, who served as director of research training and career development programs at the NIDCR, helped connect Park with scholarship opportunities, NIH loan repayment resources, and mentors across research and academic dentistry. The two regularly met over Zoom to discuss possible pathways for combining specialty training with research. Lipton encouraged Park to pursue biomedical engineering research, an area he believed would become increasingly important in dentistry. At UCLA, she ultimately created a training path that combines biomedical engineering and orthodontics for her PhD studies. 

“Dr. Lipton’s presence and mentorship were very important to me,” Park said. “He connected me to a lot of different directors, PhD students, and principal investigators that I could learn from. Everyone’s path looks so different as a clinician-scientist, so getting that exposure from the alumni network and from current mentors was very valuable.” 

Park said the support she received from the alumni network reflected the broader research culture she experienced at CDM, where her interest in becoming a clinician-scientist first began to take shape. 

“When I was awarded the SCADA Fellowship, I immediately thought about Columbia because my interest in pursuing research was really sparked by the school’s research-heavy track,” Park said. “We had access to so many resources, departments, and courses. I am proud to represent both Columbia and UCLA.” 

Research Foundations at CDM 

Park traced much of her early research development to her work with Dr. Chang Lee, associate professor of craniofacial engineering and director of research. She described Lee’s mentorship as instrumental in shaping her path, saying he encouraged her to think deeply about clinical and research questions while giving her the freedom to pursue her own interests. She also credited Columbia’s summer research fellowship program, which gave her dedicated funding and protected time to explore research early in dental school. 

Dr. Chang Lee said Park stood out early in her training, presenting at national conferences multiple times during her first years at Columbia. One moment that particularly reflected her initiative came during her third year, when she approached him about pursuing work related to cleft palate. 

“She came to my office and said she wanted to try research on cleft palate,” Lee said. “That was not my area of research at all, but I knew she was a very capable person.” 

Lee connected Park with Dr. Sidney Eisig, the George Guttmann Professor of Clinical Craniofacial Surgery and chief of hospital dentistry at CDM. Through the experience, Park observed cleft palate surgeries and began developing ideas based on what she saw in the operating room. Eisig helped build a research project around her interests and later provided departmental funding to support the work. 

Park ultimately developed a 3D-printed scaffold for orofacial cleft bone regeneration, work that resulted in a first-author publication. 

“After speaking with students from other programs, I realized how unique Columbia’s dental education really is,” Park said. “Being able to do actual hands-on in vitro and in vivo characterization during dental school was a very unique experience, and I think Dr. Lee and Dr. Eisig really made that possible for me.” 

The experience reinforced for Park how closely research and clinical care could intersect, a perspective that continued in the classroom at CDM. She pointed to a research course taught by Dr. Carol Kunzel, professor of dental community health and professor of sociomedical sciences at CUMC, as another influence on her development as a clinician-scientist. 

“She helped introduce the idea that you’re not just going to be a clinician, but also a scientist when treating your patients,” Park said. 

Expanding the Future of Dental Innovation  

Looking ahead, Park sees a range of career paths that could combine research, clinical practice, and innovation. While she remains open to academic and research careers, she is also interested in the entrepreneurial and startup space involving oral health technologies and medical devices. 

“I do see myself developing my own product,” she said. “I’m taking part in sessions with medical device entrepreneurs and learning about things like FDA clearances and regulations for oral devices.” 

Park is particularly interested in helping translate advances in fields such as biomedical engineering and immunology into dentistry, where innovation can sometimes move more slowly because of the structure of dental practice models. She hopes technologies like the intraoral monitoring device she is developing could eventually receive formal dental procedure codes and insurance coverage, making them more accessible to patients through routine dental care. 

“I think it’s very important for dentists to stay closely connected to advances in science,” Park said. “A lot of dentists practice in relatively siloed settings compared to other areas of medicine, where clinicians are often more directly connected to hospitals, clinical trials, and new research. As a future provider, I think it’s important to understand the science ourselves and, in some cases, perform the science ourselves as clinicians.” 

New Research Pathways in Dentistry 

Park said she appreciates that clinician-scientist training programs are increasingly recognizing a wider range of career paths, including academia, industry, entrepreneurship, and hybrid clinical-research roles. 

Many trainees are navigating a rapidly changing research environment, particularly as funding priorities and opportunities within the NIDCR continue to shift. As a result, mentors in Park’s program have become increasingly open to career models that combine research with clinical practice, industry collaboration, entrepreneurship, or therapeutic development. 

At the same time, she described the financial realities of dental education as one of the biggest challenges facing aspiring clinician-scientists. Many graduates, she noted, feel pressure to pursue full-time clinical practice because of educational debt and the financial demands of additional years of research training. 

“I think it’s unfair that someone who has a passion for research oftentimes can’t pursue that route because of the financial burdens,” Park said. 

She also believes many dental students remain interested in research after graduation, but struggle to envision long-term pathways outside of traditional full-time academic research careers. Mentorship and clinician-scientist training opportunities within dentistry remain relatively limited, making those paths feel difficult to navigate. 

Part of Park’s long-term goal is to help future dental students better understand the range of research pathways available within dentistry. “There’s a gap in how we talk about career possibilities in dentistry,” Park said. “Many students are drawn to research but hesitate because they don’t envision themselves pursuing a PhD or working in research full-time.” 

Even limited involvement in research, whether through a summer project or a clinical observation study, can help broaden the diversity of dental practitioners contributing to the evidence and science behind the profession, she added. Park hopes being open about her own experiences, including loan repayment programs and the financial realities of research training, can help make those pathways feel more accessible to other students.