In addition, Ms. Hwang's presentation won 3rd place at the Greater New York Dental Meeting student table clinic competition. Be assured that the faculty takes great pride in all your achievements. Your accomplishments contribute to the long-established Columbia University tradition of excellence and to the advancement of knowledge. Congratulations to each of you and to your faculty mentors. On this day we all have a chance to learn first hand about the exciting research that has been done by students in the various laboratories in the School of Dental and Oral Surgery, and in the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Research tends to be conducted very privately, far away from the public eye.
Ideas are developed by an inquisitive mind, often as the result of a chance observation, and experiments are designed and performed in the protective environment of a laboratory. Last but not least, a stringent confrontation between test results and the original hypothesis is made before an investigator is willing to bring the results out in the open and subject them to the scrutiny of colleagues and the world at large. I have seen many of you at work in different laboratories. I have heard some of you discuss preliminary results and their interpretations. However, on Birnberg Day the data will be shown and your interpretations presented.