RECOGNITIONS
Honorary membership is awarded to world-leading experts,
who have made an outstanding contribution to the field. It is the highest honour that the organisation can bestow, and consequently only nine individuals have received the recognition thus far.
Daniel Buser
EAO Honorary Membership – Milan 2024
Professor Daniel Buser is a renowned international implant surgeon with over 35 years of experience and a pioneer in Guided Bone Regeneration (GBR), performing the first GBR surgery in 1988 at the University of Bern. He served as Professor of Oral Surgery at the University of Bern (2000–2019) and held leadership roles in major academic organizations such as the EAO and ITI. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the André Schroeder Research Prize, Brånemark Osseointegration Award, and ITI Honorary Fellowship. He has contributed extensively to research on implant surfaces, bone augmentation, and bone substitutes, authoring over 400 publications, including the widely cited GBR book, now in its third edition (2022). Currently, he works part-time in private practice and focuses on education through the Buser & Sculean Academy, sharing knowledge globally with the next generation of implant specialists.
Wilfried Wagner
EAO Honorary Membership – Berlin 2023
Professor Wilfried Wagner was awarded EAO Honorary Membership during the EAO-DGI Joint Meeting in Berlin on September 28th, 2023 in recognition of his career long contribution to the development of implant dentistry. Since 1992, he has been leading the department of oral and maxillofacial surgery and of dental surgery, University Mainz. His scientific work focuses on the fundamentals of implantology and bone replacement, specifically comparing different materials and systems in clinical studies and basic research. In addition to implantology, his focus is on plastic-reconstructive surgery for functional and aesthetic rehabilitation in the context of tumor therapy and of children with facial malformations (cleft lip and palate). He has also served on the board of numerous scientific associations including as Vice President of the association of the medical science societies (AWMF).
Georg Watzek
Professor Georg Watzek was awarded EAO Honorary Membership during the 29th Annual Congress in Geneva, Oct 2022, for his landmark contribution to the development of implant dentistry.
His career spans over 50 years, during which he has written ten books and authored almost 300 papers. Professor Watzek was President of the EAO from 2003–2004.
Friedrich Neukam
Friedrich Neukam was awarded honorary membership of the EAO during the 28th Annual Congress in Lisbon, September 2019. Professor Neukam served on the EAO Board of Directors between 2001 and 2010. He was appointed Secretary General in 2004 and became EAO President in 2006. He chaired the EAO Annual Congress in Munich (2005) and co-chaired the EAO Congress in Athens (2011).
Christoph Hämmerle
Christoph Hämmerle was awarded honorary membership of the EAO during the 27th Annual Congress in Vienna, October 2018. Professor Hämmerle served on the EAO’s Board of Directors for a number of years (2002–2011). He was nominated Secretary General in 2004 and became President of the association in 2008. He is an active member of the EAO Council, the association’s advisory committee, offering his expertise on a number of matters. Professor Hämmerle has also been heavily involved in the organisation of a number of landmark EAO events. He chaired the EAO annual scientific meeting in Zurich 2006 and has participated in many EAO educational projects. Above all, he played an instrumental role in setting up the EAO Consensus Conferences which started in 2006 and he has been involved in the organisation of these major events since.
Franck Renouard
Franck Renouard was awarded honorary membership of the EAO during the EAO-SEPES joint meeting in Madrid, October 2017. Dr Renouard has been an active and dedicated member of the EAO for many years: he served on the Board from 2001 to 2008 and as president from 2004 to 2006. During his tenure, he oversaw the appointment of a professional conference organising company and secretariat to manage the association’s congress and administrative functions. He also founded the Junior Committee. Additionally, he was instrumental in organising two of the EAO’s annual meetings: he chaired the meeting in Paris in 2004 and co-chaired the Paris 2016 meeting. Dr Renouard has served on the EAO Council as a member and Council chair. He has published numerous publications nationally and internationally. His first book – co-authored with Rangert Bo, ‘Risk Factors and implant treatment’ – has been published in ten languages. He is in private practice in Paris limited to oral and implant surgery.
Niklaus P. Lang
In September 2016, Niklaus P. Lang was recognised with honorary membership of the EAO for his outstanding contribution to the association. Professor Lang was founding editor of Clinical Oral Implants Research (COIR), the official journal of the EAO, and served as editor-in-chief until 2016. His contributions to research are prolific, and he is credited as an author on over 520 publications. Professor Lang was also involved in organising early EAO annual congresses, acting as co-chair for the 1997 meeting in Bern at a time when the congress logistics were not outsourced and chairs were heavily involved with every detail. The Bern conference has since been described as the point where ‘the growth of the association really kicked in’. He is Emeritus Professor at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Daniel van Steenberghe
Daniel van Steenberghe was recognised with honorary membership in September 2015, during the Stockholm congress, having played an integral role in the development of the organisation since its foundation. As a founding member, Professor van Steenberghe was deeply involved in the initial discussions sketching out the aims and principles of the organisation. He also chaired the first annual scientific meeting in Leuven in 1992. He took on a number of additional responsibilities during his involvement with the EAO: he served on the Board from 1993 until 2007 and joined the EAO Council in 1999, acting as Council chair between 2001 and 2007. Professor van Steenberghe was also a member of the Research and Scientific Programme Committees for a number of the annual meetings. In 2007 he became Emeritus Professor of the Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University Leuven, Belgium.
André Schroeder (1918 – 2004)
André Schroeder was awarded honorary membership during the 1997 Bern congress in recognition of his decades of research into implant materials. He is renowned for his paper, published in 1976, which provided histologic evidence of osseointegration with direct bone-to-implant contact in non-decalcified sections. At that time, these findings were a scientific sensation. They complemented the work of P-I Brånemark and laid the scientific foundation for the remarkable advancements made with osseointegrated implants in the following decades.
P-I Brånemark (1929 – 2014)
P-I Brånemark, the father of osseointegration, was fittingly the first person ever to receive honorary membership of the EAO in recognition of his intrinsic role in the field. His ground-breaking discovery – that human bone would not only tolerate, but integrate titanium into its living tissue – is rightly credited with the birth of modern implant dentistry. Implants were developed and had been studied before, albeit without long-term clinical success. Despite encountering much scepticism and resistance in his early studies, he succeeded in converting the overwhelming majority of the dental community to the advantages of osseointegrated implants. His concern regarding the undue commercial influence on the emerging field led him to convene the first Munich gathering of concerned scientists that led to the founding of the EAO. The pursuit of learning for the sake of constant improvement was paramount in his professional life and this aim is reflected in the activities of the EAO.