Professor and Director of SCGT Core Facility
Department of Oral Biology and Pathology
School of Dental Medicine
I am so grateful to have not just one but two greatest moms in the world. My first mother gave birth and raised me to a decent man with a big dream, and indulged me with endless love and sacrifice. I didn’t meet my second mother until I was about to take a first step as a clinical scientist at Stony Brook University. Like my first mother, she coddled me with everything she had in order to help me become a passionate, competent — and most importantly — honest scientist like herself. Weekly lab meetings with Dr. Ghazizadeh often turned into intellectually challenging or even brutally emotional events showing her tough love.
Of the many lessons she taught me, my favorite was how to relentlessly combat unconscious errors and bias by being more critical, suspicious and skeptical of my work than anyone else in the world. My first mother instilled me with a dream of changing this world into a better place and the second mother, Dr. Ghazizadeh, left clear footprints to guide my journey to get there. I always wanted to say this to her: “Thank you for all your sacrifice and love, always keeping your faith in me.”
– Min-Gyu Kwak
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