Congratulations to Professor Durward and Professor Vento on their professorial appointments at UP

Prof Callum Durward graduated from the University of Otago in 1981. Later he gained an MDSc in “Childrens and Preventive Dentistry” from the University of Melbourne, and an MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the 1980s he spent several years working in refugee camps in Thailand and Malaysia. In the early ‘90s he worked in Cambodia for an NGO, helping to develop dental services and education. During 2001-2003 Prof Durward spent 6 months in East Timor as an Oral Health Promotion Advisor for an AusAID project.

He has also been a Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago and AUT University in NZ, Principal Dental Officer for the Otago District Health Board, and a Consultant Paediatric Dentist for the Auckland District Health Board. He has lived in Cambodia for the past 12 years where he was formerly Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, International University. He has been at the University of Puthisastra for the past 7 years, and is currently an Adjunct Professor at James Cook University (JCU) in Australia, and an Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor at University of New England (UNE). Prof Durward has been author or co-author of over 60 papers and has co-authored one book chapter.

He is active in dental education and research in the region, and is on committees of the International Association of Dental Research (IADR-SEA) and the Southeast Asian Association of Dental Education (SEAADE), and the Association of Dental Education of Asia and the Pacific (ADEAP).

Sandro Vento is currently Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Puthisastra.

Prior to joining UP, he was Professor and Founding Chair of Medicine at Nazarbayev University, and Medical Director of the University Medical Center (including four referral hospitals) in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan; Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Botswana; Professor and Founding Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Botswana; Head of the Department of Medicine at Princess Marina National Referral Hospital in Gaborone, Botswana; Director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Annunziata Referral Hospital in Cosenza, Italy; Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Verona, Italy; Consultant in Infectious Diseases at Civile Maggiore Referral Hospital in Verona and at Arnaldo Pugliese Referral Hospital in Catanzaro, Italy.

He has over 230 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, including 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine and 35 in The Lancet (the two most important medical journals worldwide).

UP looks forward to seeing UP graduates becoming health care Leaders not just in Cambodia but across the World. We have very high calibre of foreigner and Khmer staff.

We are delighted in the progress that UP is being recognized across the World as well as making a real difference to Cambodian lives.

There is no better time to be studying at UP!