Lasting Impressions | Summer 2016

NSU COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE x 37 Young came to the CDM after graduating from the University of California— San Diego with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and Physiology. The CDM has proven to be “a good fit,” Young said. “It’s a beautiful school, and the faculty members are welcoming and warm.” He is not sure how he decided to study dentistry. Among Young’s influences were his mother, who was an artist, and his father, who was a business executive in Taiwan. Young was born in the United States, but his family moved to Taiwan when he was a child. The family returned to the United States about 15 years ago and settled in southern California. About five years ago, Young’s father received a doctoral degree in acupunc- ture and Oriental medicine. Young’s older sister is a dental student at UCLA. His younger sister is an undergraduate student at UCLA and plans to study either dentistry or medicine. “I had influences,” Young said. “You still have to find your own path.” After graduating from the CDM in 2018, Young wants to practice dentistry. “I still want to have clinical experi- ence,” he said. “Every day will be different.” And he wants to continue inventing instruments and devices, then patent and license them to manufacturers to bring to the marketplace. “Most people don’t really consider being an inventor a career path,” Young joked. “This is something special I can pursue.” Young’s first invention is “just the tip of the ice- berg,” said Gary Margules, Sc.D., vice president of the NSU Office of Research and Technology Transfer. “He has about 10 ideas.” All are in the same vein, Margules added. Young has “the persistence and dedication” to see his first invention through the patent process, Margules said. Revealing it to alumni would make it public and give Young and the university only one year to file for a U.S. patent. It also would immediately bar the invention from receiving foreign patents, Margules explained. “Innovative new ideas facilitate the practice of dental medicine,” Margules said. “Danny is dedicated to the practice of dentistry and to improving the practice of dentistry.” Jeffrey Thompson, Ph.D., professor of prosthodontics and director of the CDM’s Biosciences Research Center, said Young went to him in the fall of 2015 to discuss ideas for devices to use in clinical dentistry. Young is “bright and clever” and has “a realistic sense of what can work as an actual product,” Thompson said. Thompson and a company in Durham, North Carolina, received a U.S. patent in 2014 for a new bonding technology. Thompson, a trained engineer, said Young thinks like an engineer and has a lot of the innate traits of a good engineer. “He has a lot of common sense and a practical approach to a problem,” Thompson added. Young approached the university about creating a product, Thompson said. “Many inventors lack fire in the belly. He’s got a lot of drive.” Young said he can’t wait for his invention, which is “market ready” to receive a U.S. patent. “I’m super excited,” he said. ◆ Second-year dental student Daniel Young (opposite page) made the plastic model of his invention (shown here) using a 3-D printer.