School of Dentistry honors two professor emeriti
The two former Department of Diagnostic and Biomedical Sciences faculty were recognized by their chair, Anita Joy-Thomas, BDS, PhD, and Dean John. A. Valenza, DDS.
UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry has bestowed two former faculty members with the distinct honor of professor emeriti. John Klein, PhD; and Charles Streckfus, DDS, MA, were conferred with the distinction at the annual Fall Faculty Assembly held on Dec. 17, 2024.
The two former Department of Diagnostic and Biomedical Sciences faculty were recognized by their chair, Anita Joy-Thomas, BDS, PhD, and Dean John. A. Valenza, DDS.
John R. Klein, PhD, professor emeritus
A tenured professor of immunology, Klein has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Dean’s Excellence Award in the Scholarship of Discovery at UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America Research Award. He has served on study sections for the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, and the National Science Foundation. He is a member of the editorial board of Scientific Reports, Developmental and Comparative Immunology, and Critical Immunology Reviews, and served as an associate editor for the Journal of Immunology.
He has been an ad-hoc reviewer for more than 40 scientific journals, including for Nature, Science, The Journal of Experimental Medicine, and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Klein’s research was continually funded for 26 years by the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases of the NIH. He is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Klein shared a few words of gratitude upon receiving his award for the distinction.
“I spent 22 years here and out of the several schools I worked for, it was one of the best”, he said. “Dr. Valenza was spectacular in allowing us to keep our research going.”
Charles F. Streckfus, DDS, MA, professor emeritus
A professor, Streckfus has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and has many published abstracts and presentations to his credit.
His honors and awards include the President’s Award for Scientific Excellence, presented in 2002 by the International Society for Preventive Oncology at the 6th International Symposium for Predictive Oncology Intervention Strategies, Pasteur Institute in Paris for his discovery of salivary Her2/neu as a biomarker for breast cancer.
That discovery led to Streckfus’ work toward establishing an array of protein biomarkers in saliva for breast and other related cancers. His publication Cancer Investigations received notice worldwide and established him as a leader in cancer modeling and biomarker research.
In 2022, believing there was a need for a comprehensive overview, Streckfus published the textbook Exocrinology: A Textbook and Atlas of Exocrine Cells, Glands and Organs.
Streckfus made sure to give thanks to his colleagues that supported him throughout his career at the School of Dentistry.
“First off, thank you, of course”, he said. “But more importantly, I should be giving this to all of you for all the acts of kindness that were given to me while I was here and through all the tragedies. God bless you all.”
