Remembering Dr. Charlie Burstone
On October 22nd I will be heading off to Indiana for a Burstone Memorial Symposium, which this year will commemorate Dr. Charlie Burstone’s sad passing and in which I’m sure there will be many tributes for the man whom I like to call the Father of Orthodontic Biomechanics.
Being an Indiana University alumni, I have always been inspired by him, as he had been Chairman and Professor in our orthodontic department, as well as being a great pioneer and champion of the specialty. He made pivotal contributions to orthodontics through his research and his greatest impact was in biomechanics, not surprisingly as his passions were physics and engineering, and every orthodontist appreciates how his genius has helped us to better understand defining predictable force systems.
I started to think about what made Dr. Burstone such a real professional. After learning the fundamentals you have to use what is between your ears coupled with passion and drive. Having met him on numerous occasions I can assure you that he was full of passion, dedication and that his brain never stopped working. He always wanted to push the boundaries of our profession and never stopped thinking.
My mentor, Dr. Eugene Roberts, took over the baton from his mentor, Dr. Burstone, at Indiana University and was the visionary who set up the first Orthodontic PhD program in America. I was so lucky and will be forever honored to have been chosen as his first PhD student. In recognition of these two great mentors passing on the baton to me, I have produced several Dr. Burstone busts, which I will present to every speaker of the symposium as well as to all of my fellow Indiana University PhDs, to ensure that his legacy will continue and to remind today’s teachers to pass on the baton to their students and encourage them to emulate his pioneering achievements.
The orthodontic world is indeed indebted to him - we have been lucky to learn and practise orthodontics in the age of Dr. Charlie Burstone and I hope we can march together along our path to glory, which has already been well trodden by our Father of Orthodontic Biomechanics.
Chris Chang DDS, PhD, Publisher of IJOI.