Dr. Rolf “Buzz” Behrents, editor-in-chief of the AAO’s two peer-reviewed journals, the AJO-DO and the AJO-DO Clinical Companion, has announced plans to retire at the end of Fiscal Year 2024-25 (May 31, 2025)
Dr. Behrents has been the editor-in-chief of the AJO-DO since 2014. Under his leadership the journal celebrated its centennial (2015) and introduced an Articles in Press section to help alleviate the long time period between acceptance of an article and its publication. Listed as a top AAO benefit in member surveys, the AJO-DO is considered by many as the leading resource for peer-reviewed orthodontic research and ranked as the #1 Most Valuable Orthodontic Publication in a Signet Research survey report (2023).
Dr. Behrents also led the development and launch of the AJO-DO Clinical Companion, which debuted in 2021.
An orthodontic educator and administrator from 1978-2018, Dr. Behrents retired as the Lysle E. Johnston Professor of Orthodontics and director of the orthodontic program at Saint Louis University Center for Advanced Dental Education. He previously held Chairman appointments at the University of Tennessee, Baylor College of Dentistry and Case Western Reserve University, where he completed the orthodontic residency program. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Human Growth and Development at the University of Michigan as well as a PhD.
Dr. Behrents has lectured extensively worldwide and was a co-director of the Graduate Orthodontic Residency Program (GORP) conference since it began in 1999, until recently.
Author of more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, many focusing on facial growth, Dr. Behrents taught over 400 residents, with nearly 50 of his former residents having also become orthodontic educators (including 10 full-time faculty and three program chairs).
As editor-in-chief for the AAO, Dr. Behrents serves on the association’s Board of Trustees. In addition, he was the Doctors Scientific Program co-chair for four AAO Annual Sessions and three AAO winter conferences. He served for 11 years as chair of the AAO Foundation Planning and Awards Review Committee (PARC) and was a long-time research associate at the Bolton-Brush Growth Study Center of Case Western Reserve University.
Dr. Behrents’ many awards have included the 2022 Albert H. Ketcham Award from the American Board of Orthodontics and the Louise Ada Jarabak Memorial International Teaching and Research Award from the AAO Foundation (2011). He also received an honorary degree from the University of Athens (2000).
Dr. Behrents and his wife, Eileen, currently reside in Overland Park, Kansas. Their daughter, AAO member Dr. Jenna Behrents Walburn, has an orthodontic practice nearby. Their son, Dr. Nathaniel Behrents, is an endodontist in northwest Arkansas. Dr. and Mrs. Behrents have five grandchildren.
The AAO will soon announce a schedule and process for accepting and reviewing applications from candidates interested in succeeding Dr. Behrents as editor-in-chief.
