Ruth M. Santamaría (DDS, PhD) is an associate professor in the Preventive and Pediatric Dentistry Department of Greifswald University in Germany. She graduated as a dentist in Bogotá/Colombia, and, after her studies, she specialized in paediatric dentistry. She worked as a lecturer in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry and as a researcher in the cariology field at the Faculty of Dentistry of El Bosque University in Bogotá/Colombia. She completed her master's degree in international health at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg, Germany. Following this, she received her doctorate from Greifswald University in Germany. Her dissertation addressed the clinical efficacy of different caries management treatment options for children. She has over 40 papers published in peer-reviewed journals in the fields of cariology and pediatric dentistry. She is currently (2021–2024) a member of the advisory board and, since 2021, has been the chair of the Education Section of the European Organization for Caries Research (ORCA).