(Vienna, 04 October 2024) Katrin Bekes, Head of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at MedUni Vienna's University Clinic of Dentistry, was re-elected as President of the German Society of Pediatric Dentistry (DGKiZ) for the third time at the society's annual meeting.
The DGKiZ aims to promote science, teaching and practice in the field of pediatric dentistry, including primary prevention. It currently has 2100 members. Katrin Bekes was unanimously re-elected by secret ballot at the Board elections, which were held as scheduled at the General Assembly on September 28, 2024 in Erlangen during the annual meeting of the specialist society. She will take on the responsible role of President of the society for a further two years. She already took on this role in 2019, when she was the youngest president in the history of the specialist society. She also served as Secretary General of the DGKiZ for 11 years and can therefore look back on 16 years of board work.
About the person
Katrin Bekes comes from Hattingen an der Ruhr, Germany. She studied dentistry at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, where she initially worked as a research assistant at the University Clinic for Conservative Dentistry. After moving to the pediatric dentistry section there, she took over as head of the department a year later. In 2014, she was appointed Professor of Pediatric Dentistry, Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna and took up the position in April 2015. Since then, she has headed the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the University Clinic of Dentistry Vienna. It is the first chair in pediatric dentistry in Austria. Eight years ago, she also implemented the special outpatient clinic for mineralization disorders (molar incisor hypomineralization) at MedUni Vienna's University Clinic of Dentistry, which is also unique in Austria. Bekes has also been Vice President of the Austrian Society for Pediatric Dentistry since 2017 and is a Councillor for Austria at the European Academy for Paediatric Dentistry (EAPD) and the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry (IAPD).