b'SCIENCE & INNOVATIONA tribute toDr. Steven Offenbacher.A legacy to us.The AAPs honorary supplement educates and inspiresEvery profession has its stars. There are 450 NBA players, but there is only one LeBron James. There are over 150,000 professional actors in the U.S., but there is only one Meryl Streep. And there are many talented periodontal researchers in the world, but there was only one Steven Offenbacher. He was our professions rock star, which is why his unexpected passing on August 9, 2018 was such a shock to the world of periodontics.It is for this reason that Academy members recently found a special gift in their mailboxes: a 96-page supplement to their October Journal of Periodontology titled, A Tribute to Dr. Steven Offenbacher: Honoring Four Decades of Research Contributions to Periodontal Medicine. This publication was inspired by an October 4, 2019 symposium hosted by the University of North Carolina Adams School of Dentistry, where Dr. Offenbacher was a Distinguished Professor and former chair of the Department of Periodontology, with support from the American Academy of Periodontology and Colgate-Palmolive Company.It would be difficult to overstate the late Dr. Offenbachers impact on dentistry in general or periodontics in particular. The symposium reflected that impact by featuring 10 presentations covering three key areas where his contributions were particularly profound. For the benefit of its members, the Academy decided to create a special supplement comprising the following papers based on those 10 presentations:PERIODONTAL DISEASE: INFLAMMATION & PATHOGENESISInflammasomes as contributors to periodontal disease, by Julie T. MarchesanFuture of preventing and managing common chronic inflammatory diseases, by Kenneth S. KornmanShifting the paradigm from inhibitors of inflammation to resolvers of inflammation in periodontitis,by Thomas E. Van DykePERIODONTAL MEDICINE/ORAL-SYSTEMIC CONNECTIONDisease reciprocity between gingivitis and obesity, by J. Max GoodsonExploring the periodontal diseaseischemic stroke link, by Souvik Sen and Rachel MascariChoosing the left fork: Steven Offenbacher and understanding maternal periodontal disease andadverse pregnancy outcomes, by Kim A. BoggessAAP Periospectives| 34'