Dr. Bekir Karabucak, Dr. Faizan Alawi Promoted to Professor

Philadelphia – Penn Dental Medicine recently announced the promotion of two long-standing members of the School’s faculty to the level of Professor — Dr. Bekir Karabucak (GD’97, D’02) has been promoted to Professor of Endodontics and Dr. Faizan Alawi to Professor of Pathology within the Department of Basic and Translational Sciences.

Dr. Bekir Karabucak

“Dr. Karabucak and Dr. Alawi are truly devoted to Penn Dental Medicine and their leadership plays a vital role in helping to advance the School’s mission of education, research, and patient care,” says Morton Amsterdam Dean Mark S. Wolff. “Their promotions are well deserved.”

Dr. Karabucak, who leads the Department of Endodontics as Chairman, first joined the School’s faculty in 1998, advancing through the ranks from Lecturer (1998-2002) to Assistant Professor (2002-2011) and then Associate Professor (2011-2020) before his recent promotion to Professor. Since 2011, Dr. Karabucak also has served as Director of Penn Dental Medicine’s postdoctoral endodontics program and has led the Division of Advanced Dental Education as Director since 2012. Along with a dental degree from Istanbul University School of Dental Medicine (1993), Dr. Karabucak earned his postdoctoral certificate in endodontics (1997), a Masters in Oral Biology (2002) and DMD degree (2002) all from Penn Dental Medicine.

In addition to teaching, Dr. Karabucak is an attending endodontist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an endodontist within the Penn Dental Family Practice. A Diplomate of the American Board of Endodontics, Dr. Karabucak has been recognized with the American Board of Endodontics Educator Award (2006), the Earl Bank Hoyt Teaching Award from Penn Dental Medicine (2007), and the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Honor Dental Society Honorary Award for Dental Faculty (2011).

Dr. Faizan Alawi

Dr. Alawi, who is also Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, has been a member of the Penn Dental Medicine faculty since 2001, rising from Assistant Professor (2001-2012) to Associate Professor (2012-2020) and now to Professor. During his time at the School, he has also held a secondary faculty appointment within the Department of Dermatology at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Active on a diversity of academic committees, he served as Assistant Dean for Curriculum (2015-2017) before being named Associate Dean.

A Diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Dr. Alawi is also the Director of Penn Oral Pathology Services and is an attending Pathologist in the Departments of Dermatology and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine. Recognized for teaching excellence with a number of awards throughout his academic career, Dr. Alawi was the recipient of Penn Dental Medicine’s Basic Science Award for Excellence in Teaching (2010, 2016, and 2019), the Penn Dental Medicine Award for Outstanding Service to Students (2010), and the University’s Christian R. and Mary F Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (2018). In addition, he was awarded the School’s Joseph and Josephine Rabinowitz Award for Excellence in Research in both 2004 and 2018.

Dr. Alawi was also recently selected to be part of the 2020-2021 cohort of Penn Fellows. The Penn Fellows Program provides leadership development to select Penn faculty in mid-career, offering opportunities to build alliances across the University, meet distinguished academic leaders, think strategically about University governance, and consult with Penn’s senior administrators.