Cho, Drinnan Named Distinguished Professors By SUNY Trustees

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Kah-Kyung Cho, professor of philosophy at the University at Buffalo, and Alan J. Drinnan, professor and chair of the Department of Oral Medicine in the UB School of Dental Medicine, have been named Distinguished Professor, the highest faculty rank in the State University of New York system, by the SUNY Board of Trustees.

Cho has been named a Distinguished Teaching Professor, a designation awarded to persons who have demonstrated outstanding teaching competence at the graduate, undergraduate or professional level.

Drinnan was elevated to the rank of Distinguished Service Professor, an honor awarded for outstanding service to the community, state or nation through the application of intellectual skills drawn from scholarly and research interests to issues of public concern.

Kah-Kyung Cho has been affiliated with UB for more than 25 years. A visiting Fulbright Professor at the university from 1967-68, he was appointed a visiting associate professor in 1970 and a year later was promoted to the rank of professor. In 1990, Cho received a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

He has been a visiting professor at other universities including Yale University; the University of Texas at Austin; Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany; and Japan's Osaka University, where he lectured as a fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Cho also was a distinguished visiting professor at Soong Sil University in Seoul, South Korea, in 1991.

The author of "Philosophy of Existence" (Pak Young Sa, Seoul, Korea, 1961) and "Bewusstsein und Natursein (Consciousness and Being of Nature)" (Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg, Germany, 1987), he is the co-author of "Ontology" (Minerva Publishing Co., Seoul, Korea, 1965). He is the editor of "Philosophy & Science in Phenomenological Perspective" (Martinus Nijhoff, The Netherlands, 1984) and is the general editor of the prestigious international publications series "Orbis Phaenomenologicus," written by the world's leading phenomenological scholars. Cho has authored more than 60 articles on phenomenology, existential philosophy and hermeneutic philosophy in German, English, Japanese and Korean.

A native of Korea, he is a graduate of Seoul National University and holds a doctorate from the University of Heidelberg.

Cho lives in Williamsville.

Alan J. Drinnan has been on the faculty of the UB School of Dental Medicine since 1964 and an assistant dean since 1978. Chief of dental services at The Buffalo General Hospital since 1967, he is director of the hospital's general practice residency program and the UB Division of Hospital Dental Services.

Drinnan is a past president of the International Association of Oral Pathologists and the American Academy of Oral Pathology. A member and past president of the American Board of Oral Pathology, he is a member and former chair of the Council on Hospitals of the American Association of Dental Schools.

Internationally known for his work in forensic dentistry, he has presented lectures to dental societies in numerous countries. He was a member of the scientific advisory board of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology from 1987-93 and in 1983 was a consultant to the Saudi Arabian government on the development of curriculum for the School of Dentistry at Riyadh.

Drinnan is chairman and founding member of the Erie County Sheriff's Department Scientific Staff, and a forensic dental consultant to the department and the Erie County Medical Examiner's Office. He is a past chairman of the advisory board of WBFO 88.7 FM, the National Public Radio affiliate operated by UB.

A fellow of the International College of Dentists, he was authored or coauthored more than 60 scientific articles.

He is a graduate of the dental and medical schools at Bristol University in England, and also holds dental degrees from the Royal College of Surgeons in London and the UB School of Dental Medicine.

Drinnan is a resident of Williamsville.