In Memoriam - Dr. Guilherme Janson: 1958–2021
Dr. Guilherme Janson left us July 30, 2021. Here, in the Southern Hemisphere, it was winter and the day was cold. We students and former students were taken by surprise. Heroes never die, we thought. But, they die. And that was when we realized that he too was human.
“You only have one chance to make a good first impression,” he told new students. Behind this sometimes hard teaching, there was a desire for his students to give their best in everything they did. And that was his greatest desire: not to form mere followers of his science but to transform each student into science questioners and, perhaps, even better teachers than he was. The legacy left by Dr. Guilherme Janson will cross generations of orthodontists. His research involved essential fields of orthodontics, such as Class II and III malocclusion and anterior open bite. Recently, a ranking of the 100,000 scientists with the most significant impact in all areas of science was published. Researchers who were in the top 2 percent for each field of knowledge were also included. Brazilian dentistry included 74 researchers. Within Brazilian orthodontics, there were four and, among them, was Guilherme Janson. It was not surprising, as his academic production encompassed more than 500 published papers, in addition to numerous books and book chapters. According to data from the Sci-Val (Scopus) database, he was the author with the fifth greatest number of publications between the years 2017-2020 in the area of “Dentistry”. Dr. Guilherme Janson was also the second greatest researcher in the world in orthodontics and the greatest expert on the term “malocclusion”. All this, it is noteworthy, achieved in a country that supported little science, such as Brazil. “On the face of it, your achievement is genuinely memorable.”
Dr. Guilherme Janson left no children. However, he used to call all his students “son”. It was an honor for all of us students to share this piece of time with such a respected figure. The DNA left by him is the knowledge shared with all his “sons” worldwide, who will proudly continue to share the knowledge enjoyed during his brief stay on Earth. As a former student, I say: “If orthodontics were a religion, Dr. Guilherme Janson would be my God.”
Rest in peace, Dr. Guilherme Janson.
Paula Cotrin, Karina Maria Salvatore de Freitas, Professors, Orthodontic Dental School, Inga University Center, Maringa-PR, Brazil.
Citation: The Angle Orthodontist 92, 1; 10.2319/1945-7103-92.1.150
Dr. Lindauer (Left) and Dr. Janson, Bauru, Brazil, August 2019.
Contributor Notes
Editor's Note: I had the honor and privilege of meeting Dr. Janson when I was in Bauru in 2019. He was very proud of his school, his students and their accomplishments. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend that small amount of time with him, just a few days. His passing is a sad loss for the orthodontic specialty. – Steven J Lindauer