Alex Fok, PhD
Director and Professor
Dr. Fok's lab focuses on understanding the failure mechanisms and extending the service lives of dental restorations. Engineering methods and mathematical models are used extensively to provide clarity as well as unique insights to the different topics on dental materials research. His lab has developed many pioneering methods for assessing the behavior of dental materials. Notable examples are the use of digital image correlation and acoustic emission to quantify polymerization shrinkage and interfacial debonding of resin composites in situ. Bioinspired shape optimization techniques are also used to derive novel restoration shapes that can minimize the failure-causing stresses and, hence, extend the service lives of these restorations.
Dr. Fok's lab has hosted many visiting scholars from around the world through a scholarship scheme sponsored by 3Mgives. The aim of this program, which is open to dental clinicians from developing and underdeveloped countries, is to equip them with more rigorous and insightful research methods which would allow them to better evaluate the effectiveness of dental restorative materials and treatment options.