Bone and Tooth Discussion Group, 1959-1994

For over three decades New York City's Bone and Tooth Discussion Group provided an informal, multidisciplinary forum for the presentation and discussion of newly completed work or work in progress, as well as a setting where researchers with common interests could become better acquainted.

The Group was the brainchild of Albert Hirschman (SUNY Downstate Medical Center) and Albert Sobel. In 1959 Hirschman contacted Felix Bronner at the Hospital for Special Surgery, who had organized the first Gordon Research Conference on Bones and Teeth, and Bronner agreed to lead the organization effort.

Dominic Dziewiatkovski hosted the first meetings at Rockefeller University. In 1963, when Bronner left New York, Hirschman took over the duties of arranging the meetings and getting out the notices. When Dziewiatkovski left New York in 1967, John Gregory took over the role of host at Rockefeller. The monthly meetings continued at Rockefeller until 1991, when Gregory retired.

Beginning in the 1980s, a social hour in the Rockefeller University Faculty and Students Club preceding the seminar presentation proved particularly conducive to the exchange of ideas. Attendees typically moved from table to table to visit with others, and a great deal of research information passed back and forth.

In 1991 the Discussion Group moved to the NYU College of Dentistry, an arrangement made possible by John LeGeros, and in 1993 to the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University, where excellent facilities were made available by Melvin Moss and organization assumed by the Hospital for Joint Diseases’ Norman Blumenthal. For a variety of reasons beyond the organizers’ control, after the 1994 season the Discussion Group became inactive.

The present Bone Seminar Series seeks to continue the grand tradition established by the Bone and Tooth Discussion Group, both by presenting stimulating seminars and by providing an environment where ideas can be exchanged in a friendly, informal manner.