Prof Gregory Seymour, dean of the University of Otago School of Dentistry, and Associate Prof Jim McQuillan, a university chemist, have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Society academy officials said Prof Seymour was an international leader in the immunology of periodontal disease.
His research had received widespread international recognition, gaining the Sir Wilfred Fish International Research Prize from the British Society for Periodontology.
His studies had ranged from cellular and molecular immunology to applied clinical research and epidemiology.
He had made a major contribution to the understanding of how the host immune system could modify the development of periodontal disease.
More recently, Prof Seymour has made significant advances in the understanding of the relation between systemic disease and periodontal disease, and the mechanisms of bone resorption and formation.
Society officials said that investigations by Prof McQuillan, of the university chemistry department, had increased knowledge of surface chemistry using spectroscopy.
He had achieved international recognition early in his career through his co-discovery of "Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy", the society noted.
The research, published in a landmark paper in Chemical Physics Letters in 1974, had been cited more than 1270 times.
The method enabled molecules to be studied on electrode surfaces and provided a new approach to the study of surface chemistry and surface reactions.
It had a wide application, laying the ground for recent research on single-molecule imaging.
Prof McQuillan had continued at the forefront of discoveries in spectroscopy.
"The in situ spectroscopic methods developed by Prof McQuillan are an outstanding contribution to the study of solid surfaces and solid-solution surface interactions," the academy citation stated.
These methods had led to a better understanding of chemical reactions in diverse situations such as the dispersion of pigments in paints and adhesion of mussel larvae to surfaces.
The other fellows elected were: Prof Neil Broom, Prof Mark Cannell, Prof Russell Gray, all of Auckland University; Prof Mick Roberts, Massey University, Auckland; Dr Bryce Buddle, AgResearch, Palmerston North; Dr Matt McGlone, Landcare Research, Lincoln; Dr Martin Reyners, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Lower Hutt; Dr Peter Tyler, Industrial Research Ltd, Lower Hutt.
