Samuel Low, D.D.S., M.S., M.Ed., recently received the 2008 Florida Dental Association’s J. Leon Schwartz Lifetime Achievement Award. Given during the annual Florida National Dental Convention held in June in Orlando, this is the highest achievement award bestowed by the FDA and is presented to someone who has displayed a lifelong commitment to enhancing dentistry.
Low, associate dean and professor in Periodontology, is a past president of the FDA and played an integral role in the growth and development of the FDA, and organized dentistry as a whole. The award committee includes the current president and representatives from each component of the FDA and chose Low for the award because “he has shown the highest level of leadership in all his endeavors and his knowledge of all our current critical issues is equally impressive. He is truly a leader’s leader.”
Low received his B.S. in Biology from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, in 1967. By 1975 he’d gone on to earn his D.D.S., M.S., and Certificate in Periodontics all from the University of Texas’ Dental Branch in Houston. He joined the ranks of the Gator Nation in 1975 in the College of Dentistry’s Department of Periodontology and earned his M.Ed. from UF’s College of Education in 1980.
Founded in 1884, the Florida Dental Association is a statewide, professional membership organization representing over 7,000 Florida-licensed dentists. A constituent society of the American Dental Association, the FDAs mission is to advance public health through professional education, public advocacy, high practice standards and improving the professional practice environment.