Dr Joanne Choi is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago. She is the Deputy Convenor of the Bachelor of Dental Technology program and the program lead for Clinical and Translational research program at Sir John Walsh Research Institute. As a practising clinical dental technician (CDT), Dr Choi’s main teaching responsibility is to teach the Bachelor of Dental Technology and Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Dental technology at Otago. Dr Choi also gives biomaterials, oral physiology and clinical lectures in the dental surgery and oral health programme and supervises research at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Dr Choi has been a key researcher in dental technology, materials science and clinical and translational research in NZ and internationally, publishing 61 peer-reviewed international journal articles and attracting ~ NZ$1 million competitive research funding in the last 8 years. Dr Choi’s research focus has been developing new dental restorative materials to improve oral care and real-time measuring systems to evaluate physiologic changes or biomechanics of the materials in the oral cavity. Dr Choi and her research team and students carry out qualitative and quantitative analysis of the mechanical properties and failure mechanisms of a wide range of restorative dental materials (various dental resins, metals and ceramics; CAD-CAM and 3D printed dental materials) and is interested in conducting research that can be translated to every day practice for clinicians and dental technicians.