Prof. Rui Amaral Mendes attained his DMD degree from the University of Porto. He proceeded with his studies at the VU Universiteit Amsterdam where he defended his doctoral thesis under the supervision of his mentor, Prof. Isaac van der Waal. As Professor of Oral Medicine, Oral Oncology and Oral Surgery of the Catholic University of Portugal he was appointed Clinical Director of the University Dental Clinic in 2011. In 2012 he was further appointed Chair of the DMD Program and Chair of the Post-Graduation Course in Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine and Pathology of the Catholic University of Portugal. He left all these position in August 2015 and became solely affiliated with Case Western Reserve University. He also held a position of Visiting Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Michigan until 2014.
Fellow of the International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and of the International Academy of Oral Oncology, he was actively involved in the V World Workshop on Oral Medicine, as member of the “Genetics/epigenetics of oral mucosal premalignancy” work group and is also member of the Research Interest Group "Head & Neck Oncology” of the International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. In June 2013 he was designated as one of the Chairs of the Osteonecrosis Section of the Oral Care Study Group, Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer/International Society of Oral Oncology (MASCC/ISOO). In December 2014 he was unanimously co-opted as member of the Executive Committee of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE) and recently he was elected Board Member of the International Society of Oral Oncology (ISOO) and Vice-President for Communications.
He is an active reviewer of several scientific journals (“Oral Oncology”, “Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology”, “International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery”, “Oral Diseases”, “Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine”, etc.), served as member of the Editorial Board of “Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology” and is a currently Editorial Board Member for the prestigious journals “Oral Diseases” and “Journal of Carcinogenesis & Mutagenesis“ and Associate Editor for Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine of the “British Medical Journal - Case Reports” and Associate Editor of the “Journal of Oral Pathology and Medicine”.
Between 2003 and 2013 he was actively collaborating, as a volunteer, with the Non-Governmental Organization for Development (NGOD) “Doctors of the World” integrating the medical team responsible for providing primary health care to the homeless population of the city of Porto and the illegal immigrants detained at the center of the Department of Immigration.