Prof. Dr. Shigemi Nagai

Shigemi Nagai is an associate professor of oral medicine, infection and immunity at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Since arriving at HSDM in 2001, she has been working as a full-time faculty member in prosthodontics and has served as director of advanced dentistry in the DMD program. She received her DDS in 1982 and her PhD in 1988, both from Iwate Medical University School of Dentistry in Japan. She also received her board certification in prosthodontics in Japan in 1990. While on sabbatical in Boston, she received a master’s degree in biomaterials from Boston University Goldman School of Dentistry in 1995. Throughout her career, she has been dedicated to teaching prosthodontics and mentoring students’ research, first as assistant professor at Iwate Medical School and, since 2001, at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. She has received numerous awards recognizing her teaching, including the Distinguished Junior Faculty Award from HSDM in 2004, the Claude R. Baker Teaching Award for excellence in teaching pre-doctoral fixed prosthodontics in 2006, and several Outstanding Teaching Faculty awards from the predoctoral students at HSDM. Her primary research interest and expertise are in translational and clinical research in color science in dentistry. She was deeply involved in the development of a commercially available dental spectrophotometer that is currently the most reliable color-measuring device in clinical dentistry.