Dr R. Bruce Donoff was born in New York City. He attended Brooklyn College as an undergraduate, received his D.M.D. from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 1967 and his M.D. from the Harvard Medical School in 1973. Dr Donoff’s professional career has centered on Harvard’s Faculty of Medicine and the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He began as an intern in 1967, and has served in the Department since that time, becoming Chairman and Chief of Service in 1983. In 1991 Dr Donoff was named Dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, a post which he continues to hold. In addition to these responsibilities, Dr Donoff has made major contributions in research to the specialty of oral and maxillofacial surgery with interests in wound healing, bone graft survival, sensory nerve repair and oral cancer. He has published over a hundred papers, authored textbooks, and lectured worldwide. Dr Donoff served twelve years on the Board of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation and is currently the Immediate Past President of the Friends of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. He is the editor of the MGH Manual of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and the Massachusetts Dental Society Journal. Dr Donoff has received numerous honours during his academic career, including the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Research Recognition Award, the William J. Gies Foundation Award for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Distinguished Alumni and Faculty Awards from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. In December 2011 he was awarded the Alpha Omega Achievement Award.