Rate My Professor Hans Zoellner

Professor Hans Zoellner holds a Personal Chair as Professor of Oral Pathology at the University of Sydney, with an honorary appointment as Professor and Honorary Associate in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering. He earned a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS, Honours Class II) from the University of Sydney in 1982 and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in 1991 on the vascular response in chronic periodontitis, funded by an NHMRC Scholarship. Following private dental practice from 1983 to 1992, he conducted post-doctoral research as NHMRC Senior Research Officer in the Department of Medicine at the University of Melbourne (1990-1992), Lise Meitner Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Clinical Experimental Physiology at the University of Vienna (1993-1994), and Visiting Investigator in Cell Biology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (2013-2015). At the University of Sydney, initially in the Faculty of Dentistry and later the School of Dentistry within the Faculty of Medicine and Health, he progressed from Lecturer in Oral Pathology (1995-1996) and Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine (1995-1996) to Senior Lecturer (1997), Associate Professor and Head of Oral Pathology (2005), and Personal Chair Professor of Oral Pathology (2013). He served as Head of the Combined Disciplines of Oral Surgery, Medicine, and Diagnostics (2019-2021) before the discipline's dissolution.

Zoellner's research interests include vascular biology, cancer biology, tissue remodelling, public dental health policy, dental robotics, and experimental pathology. Notable discoveries encompass the anti-apoptotic activity of serum albumin for endothelium, periodontal high endothelial-like venules, adipogenic healing, follicular soft tissues in tooth eruption, and cell-projection pumping as a syncytial mechanism in mammalian cells and cancer. Key publications are Serum albumin is a specific inhibitor of apoptosis in human endothelial cells (Journal of Cell Science, 1996), A potential hydrodynamic mechanism for cytoplasmic transfer between mammalian cells: Cell-projection pumping (Biophysical Journal, 2020), and early works such as Vascular expansion in chronic periodontitis (Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine, 1991) and High endothelial-like venules in chronically inflamed periodontal tissues (Journal of Pathology, 1989). Awards include the Professor Roland Bryant Award for Excellence and Initiative in Teaching (2012), Dr Jim Poyner Research Award (2021), Fellowship of the International College of Dentists (2006), and Sigma Xi membership (2021). He has supervised students, taught pathology and public health dentistry, and held roles as founding Chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Oral Health, Chairman of the Westmead Hospital Scientific Advisory Committee, lead examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons, and guest editor for Biomolecules and Bioengineering special issues.