Anthropologist Dr. Christina Nicholas Joins Department of Orthodontics
![Anthropologist Dr. Christina Nicholas Joins Department of Orthodontics](https://dentistry.uic.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/741/2020/10/Nicholas-Christina-Ortho.2-1090x595.jpg)
Dr. Christina Nicholas has joined the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry as a Visiting Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthodontics.
“I’m a biological anthropologist by training,” she explained.
“My primary responsibility is research, though I also am involved in teaching,” Dr. Nicholas added. “I started as a facilitator for Small Group Learning in October.”
Her main research area “is craniofacial growth and development, and I work a lot with various imaging modalities, such as Cone Beam Computed Tomography and 3D scans,” Dr. Nicholas said. “I hope to build new collaborative research projects with others in the College and across campus.”
Dr. Nicholas earned her BS in Anthropology from Michigan State University and her MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Iowa. Her previous research and teaching appointments include the University of Iowa and Kirkwood Community College in Iowa City.
“It was a blast doing a PhD in anthropology, but I now find it very fulfilling to use my background in craniofacial growth to help tackle important clinical questions,” she said.
Earlier this year as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research at the University of Iowa, Dr. Nicholas earned first place in the Dentsply Implants Oral Presentation Competition in the Iowa Section of the American Association for Dental Research.
While a Graduate Research Assistant at the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research at the University of Iowa, one of her supervisors was Dr. Clark Stanford, now Dean of the UIC College of Dentistry.