School of Dental Medicine at the University at Buffalo, New York, USA
Chair of Oral Biology
Stefan Ruhl is a professor and chair of Oral Biology in the School of Dental Medicine at the University at Buffalo, New York, USA. His research seeks to unravel the roles that saliva and microorganisms play in health, including in adhesion to teeth and surfaces of the mouth, defense against pathogens, and colonization of the oral cavity. Ruhl joined the UB faculty in 2007 from the University of Regensburg, Germany, where he was a Professor of Operative Dentistry and Periodontology and actively participated in clinical and academic student teaching and patient treatment. He obtained his D.D.S. in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Immunology in 1988 from the Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany. Following a residency in private dental practice, he pursued post-doctoral studies at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) in oral microbial ecology.
In 1995, he joined the faculty at the University of Regensburg, where he became a Professor of Operative Dentistry and Periodontology in 2004. In 2007, he joined the Department of Oral Biology at the University of Buffalo, where he now studies the molecular mechanisms of glycan-mediated bacterial adhesion to salivary glycoproteins from an evolutionary perspective. He has been the scientific mentor to more than a dozen D.D.S., Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral fellows. He is a past President of the Salivary Research Group within the International Association for Dental Research (IADR); in 2015 was named IADR Salivary Researcher of the Year, and in 2020 received the IADR Distinguished Scientist Award in Salivary Research, the University at Buffalo Exceptional Scholar Award for Sustained Achievement, and was elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
In 2023, he was elected as a Fellow of the International College of Dentists, and in 2024, a Fellow of the AADOCR. His scientific projects have been funded through the NIDCR since 2010. He is a member of several major professional and scientific societies, Editor in Chief of Clinical Oral Investigations, and Associate Editor of JADA Foundational Science. From January 2022 until May 2023, he served as Interim Dean of UB’s School of Dental Medicine.
