UAB Campus Portrait

Campus Portrait

Table of Contents 1 • Undergraduate Education 6 • Graduate/Postdoctoral Education

8 • UAB Medicine 10 • Research 14 • A r ts and Culture 18 • Outreach and Impac t 2 2 • A pp e ndi x 1: A Brief Histor y of UAB 24 • Appendix 2: STEM Education and Outreach

A Renaissance University Building on its strong foundations in collaborative research, UAB’s creative, interdisciplinary culture enriches undergraduate and graduate education through an array of honors programs and student engagement in faculty research.

In this fertile environment for inquiry and discovery, students are breaking new ground in a broad range of disciplines: Combating global cybercrime in collaboration with the FBI; perfecting 3-D modeling in the new Leonardo Program, which weds art and engineering instruction; winning national championships in Mock Trial, Ethics Bowl and Bioethics Bowl; and performing concerts and exhibiting art around their community, state and world.

Enrollment has reached record highs for three consecutive years (now over 17,500), and with 21,500 faculty and staff, UAB is the state’s largest single employer, with a $490-million research enterprise and annual economic impact of $4.6 billion.

In just over 40 years, UAB has achieved one of the most rapid ascents in the history of higher education. It’s a great story, but we believe the best chapter is yet to come.

undergraduate education A Community of Scholars UAB ’s Honors College is par ticularly distinc tive for its c l o s e i n t e r a c t i o n (a b o u t 5 0 i n c o m i n g f r e s h m e n i n e a c h program , for a tot al of ab out 3 0 0 f ir s t- year honor s students each fall), and for diverse programs tailored to p a r t i c u l a r i n t e r e s t s . T h e r e a r e 7 11 s t u d e n t s i n t h e H o n o r s College, with an average AC T of 28.8, average high school G PA o f 3 . 9 6 a n d a v e r a g e U A B G PA o f 3 . 5 5 . H o n o r s C o l l e g e programs include:

Education for the 21st Century The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools identif ied UAB ’s curriculum enhancement program as a national model.

• University Honors Program: In its 28th year, the program’s nationally acclaimed interdisciplinary arts and sciences curriculum brings a liberal arts education to a world-class research university. Courses are teamtaught; faculty vary each year based on an annual learning theme. In the past, themes have included “Ethics,” “The Nature/Nurture Debate,” and “The Environment: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.”

• Global and Community Leadership Honors Program: Designed for

Emphasis is placed on four

students interested in social justice issues as well as social change

competencies across the curriculum:

leadership and its application to social entrepreneurialism, this

• Communication—Graduates are able to participate effectively in the world of ideas and information.

• Knowledge—Graduates possess a depth and breadth of knowledge sufficient for informed decisionmaking.

• Problem-solving—Graduates are able to collect and evaluate data and analyze complex issues, using appropriate methods.

program’s coursework and experiences explore social, economic, cultural and political issues at home and abroad.

• Science and Technology Honors Program: Immerses science and engineering students in tailored academic and research experiences.

Students engage in one-on-one research with world-class faculty members. Nearly two-thirds of students graduating from the program have presented at national scientific conferences and/or been published in peer-reviewed journals.

• Experiential Learning Scholars Program: Designed for students seeking to purposefully enhance their academic coursework with applicable, real-life experiences. The program makes hands-on learning an integral part of a thorough and enlightened education;

• Citizenship—Graduates are aware

students are mentored while they construct an individualized learning

of contemporary issues and prepared

plan suited to their unique academic, personal and career aspirations.

to engage responsibly in the community.

• Early Medical Professional School Acceptance Program: Elite program that offers highly qualified incoming freshmen guaranteed admission

The American Association of

to UAB’s schools of Medicine, Dentistry or Optometry once they

Colleges and Universities selected

successfully complete program requirements.

UAB for its leadership consortium in educating students in personal and social responsibility.

UAB also has 30-plus honors programs within individual schools and departments.

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UAB is among the top 200 universities internationally, and top 100 in life sciences, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

Unique Opportunities • A national award-winning, student-managed investment portfolio currently holds about $500,000 in assets and has been featured prominently on CNBC and in Business Week magazine.

• Alabama’s only undergraduate biomedical engineering degree.

• One of only four forensic accounting and cybertechnology degrees in the nation.

• UAB’s annual Festival of TenMinute Plays challenges theatre students to write, direct and perform edgy, ultra-short plays based on a particular theme.

• The only industrial distribution degree in the Southeast.

• Unique undergraduate neurosciences program.

• The Center for Urban Education equips inner-city schoolteachers with skills geared specifically for urban classrooms, and has trained more than 80 teachers now working in high-needs schools.

• Students from every school on campus are involved in UAB “Study Away,” which operates in 57 sites spanning all continents (including Antarctica)—studying everything from medieval literature in England to public health in Peru and biology in the Galapagos.

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undergraduate education Award-winning Graduates Since 2003, the number of bachelor ’s degrees awarded has risen 31 percent.

L as t year s aw our highe s t- ever numb er of baccalaureate degrees awarded: 1,921

In the past three years, UAB students have earned: • 1 Rhodes Scholarship (UAB’s second)

Bowl Season

• 8 Goldwater Scholarships • 11 slots in the highly competitive “Teach for

UAB’s Ethics Bowl Team won the national championship in only its second year of

America” Program

competition in spring 2010.

• 5 NSF Graduate Fellowships • 3 Phi Kappa Phi Fellowships

In spring 2011, UAB’s Bioethics Bowl Team

• 2 Truman Scholarships

won the national title in its first year of competition.

• 2 Merck Scholars awards (of only 15 in the nation awarded annually) • 5 U.S. State Dept. Critical Languages Scholarships • 7 Fulbright Scholarships (for study in Ireland, Chile, Taiwan, Jordan, Australia, India, Germany and Moldova) • 2 Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarships (to Northern Ireland and Egypt) • 3 DAAD - RISE research internships in Germany • DAAD Ambassadorship (one of only 30 in the nation awarded annually) • 2 William Jefferson Clinton Scholarships (to study at American University in Dubai) • 1 NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Scholarship (one of only 15 in the nation awarded annually)

A Growing, Diverse Campus • 11,000 undergraduates • Third straight year of record enrollment • Record number of degrees awarded at all levels in 2010 • Two-thirds of incoming freshmen live on campus • 30 percent of undergraduate student body is African-American, more than 35 percent are minorities and nearly 61 percent are female • Students hail from every region of the country and more than 110 nations • Entering freshman average ACT, 24.4; GPA, 3.5

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Undergraduate Involvement in Research UAB is one of a handful of institutions classified by the Carnegie Foundation as b oth a “ Re search Uni ve r sit y w ith Ve r y High Research Activity ” and a leader in “Communit y Engagement .”

In addition to faculty-mentored research, s tudent s also t ake par t in ac tive learning through ser vice -learning projects in the c o m m u n i t y, s t u d y a b r o a d i n d i v i d u a l l y o r on faculty-led study groups, and abundant co - ops, internships, teaching, and clinical experiences.

Approximately 3, 50 0 students engage in such activities outside the classroom each y e a r, a n d t h e n u m b e r i s g r o w i n g .

• Money Matters: Comparing federal research dollars to the number of incoming freshmen, UAB ranks 15th among all universities nationally, and first among public institutions—an indicator of the

• Research Expo: The Undergraduate Research

opportunities undergraduates have to participate in

Expo, now in its fifth year, celebrates excellence in

faculty-mentored research.

research, scholarship and creativity by showcasing

• Research Journal: Inquiro, founded in 2006, is an annual publication of UAB interdisciplinary research edited and published by undergraduates.

The journal employs a blind, peer-review process conducted by UAB faculty and researchers who review student submissions and guide them on editing, journal style and other elements of professional research publication. Undergraduates network with faculty members and other students as they explain their projects, respond to questions and garner feedback. The whole experience helps deepen the understanding of their work and gives them valuable public-speaking experience.

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the academic endeavors of undergraduate students. This past year’s event was the largest yet, with over 180 student presenters covering more than three quarters of the majors offered at UAB. The eclectic range of poster and oral presentations, on topics from music performance to robotics, drew more than 500 attendees.

UAB ranks first among public institutions, and 15th among all universities, in its ratio of federal research dollars to incoming freshmen.

undergraduate education

UAB has been ranked for three consecutive years among Princeton Review’s top 10 universities for diversity (currently 5th in the nation).

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graduate and postdoctoral education Excellence in Advanced Training • Enrollment: 5,402

• Postdocs: 235 distributed across eight schools

• Up 32 percent since 2002

• Last three years: Average time to Ph.D., 5.8 years;

• Highest graduate enrollment of any Alabama university • Two-thirds female, one-third male; 19 percent minority; 7 percent international

Ph.D. retention, 90.1 percent.

• Number of doctorates awarded has nearly doubled since 2002 The UAB School of Medicine produces 80 percent of Alabama-trained physicians.

over the past five years • Overall graduate enrollment has grown 26 percent • Growth in select schools: • College of Arts & Sciences: 10.4% • School of Education: 11.4% • School of Health Professions: 30.6% • School of Engineering: 71.3% • School of Nursing: 245.6%

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Academic Programs • 37 doctoral programs (33 Ph.D.) • 45 master’s programs • 8 education specialist programs

Innovation in Graduate Education In keeping with UA B ’s interdisciplinar y culture, a number of programs train students for emerging fields at the intersection of disciplines.

International Reputation

• The Leonardo Art and Engineering Certificate (Engineering/Art and Art History) equips students for the burgeoning field of computer 3-D modeling, which

• Faculty in two Ph.D. training programs rank in the

has myriad applications in health care, education,

top 20th percentile of their respective disciplines for

entertainment and other areas.

scholarly productivity by Academic Analytics; 16 UAB Ph.D. programs are ranked in the top 50th percentile.

• UAB was invited to join the Center for Research, Teaching, and Learning, an NSF-funded consortium of

• The Scientist ranks UAB 6th among public universities

25 premier research institutions (16 of which are AAU

in its “Best Places to Work as a Postdoc” list.

schools) dedicated to improving the teaching skills of

• U.S. News’ “Best Graduate Schools” ranks

graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and faculty.

13 UAB programs in the top 25 and five in the top 10.

• UAB’s longtime, NSF-funded work in Antarctica (two

• Recent individual awards include:

geographic formations there are named for UAB

• NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (four in the past three years)

faculty) engages graduate students in novel research that advances our understanding of climatology, marine biology and medicine.

• John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (one of 10 nationally)

• UAB’s NIH Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program Award prepares underrepresented minorities who hold recently awarded baccalaureate

• Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Fellowship (one of

degrees for their pursuit of a biomedical research

10 nationally)

doctorate (one of 23 programs in the country).

• Ford Foundation

Funded Programs Supporting Trainees • 26 active training grants— 78 predoc, 67 postdoc positions • 10 training grants pending

• The Fast-track Master of Accounting (M.Ac.) enables

Fellowship in

high-achieving business undergraduates pursuing

its dissertation

accounting degrees to take up to 12 hours of graduate

competition

courses towards an M.Ac., which they begin upon

• Pickering Graduate

completion of their bachelor’s.

Foreign Affairs

• NIH Institutional Research and Career Development

Fellowship

Award Program: Combines traditional postdoc research experience with development of teaching

funding—29 predoc,

skills through mentored teaching commitments at a

35 postdoc positions

minority-serving institution (one of 17 in the country).

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uab medicine Vision: To be the preferred academic medical center of the 21st century Comprehensive Care

• UAB has the fourth-largest academic medical center in the nation with 1,146 beds, treating well over a million patients annually.

• UAB Hospital is the only medical center in Alabama listed in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” issue for 22 straight years (every year from the issue’s inception).

• The 2011-12 issue of Best Doctors in America lists 291 UAB physicians in 55 specialties, putting them among the top 5 percent of clinicians in the U.S. as voted by their peers.

• For 10 consecutive years, winner of the National Research Corporation “Consumer Choice Award” recognizing the nation’s 250 top hospitals.

• Named eight straight years among “Healthcare’s 100 Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems” by the American Hospital Association.

• One of the few hospitals nationwide to attain the elite “Magnet” designation for nursing excellence three times in a row.

Leaders in their Fields

• UAB physicians and researchers serve as editors-in-chief of 25 peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals and in high-level national posts.

• UAB faculty currently serve as president of the American Heart Association and immediate past president of the American Cancer Society; an alumna is Surgeon General of the United States.

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UAB has the only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Alabama and a six-state region.

Unique Services for the State and Region UAB has Alabama’s only Level 1 (highest level) trauma center and:

• State’s only Level 3 (highest level) regional neonatal ICU • State’s only burn unit • State’s only solid organ transplant program, and one of the busiest kidney transplant programs in the nation • Only Level 1 ocular trauma center in the Southeast (one of two nationally) • Only TrueBeam Accelerator in the Southeast

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Landmark Discoveries and Initiatives The research enterprise at UAB stretches well beyond its medicalcenter roots. Researchers throughout the institution join together in interdisciplinary efforts to address problems facing our world today.

• An Egyptologist/archaeologist used infrared satellite imaging to discover 17 lost pyramids and thousands of houses and tombs previously invisible. Once the images were discovered via satellite, a team of French excavators confirmed what had been seen in the images from space. The work was the subject of BBC and Discovery Channel documentaries, and the investigator was a TED Fellow and mainstage speaker at the 2012 event in California.

• In the new Materials Processing and Application Development facility, the largest academic research facility of its kind in the nation, UAB engineers are pioneering leading-edge metals and composites for a range of applications—from missile systems to lighter, more fuel-efficient city buses.

• UAB’s nationally renowned cybersleuth and director of research in computer forensics is a five-time Microsoft Most Valuable Professional who consults frequently with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and law-enforcement agencies. His team recently helped the FBI and NASA identify seven foreign nationals who were conducting a massive Internet fraud that infected more than 400 million computers in 100 countries and scammed $14 million.

• Physiology and ecology faculty and students conduct research in Antarctica, investigating chemical defenses of marine life and the role these could play in prevention of diseases such as heart disease, cystic fibrosis, cancer and AIDS. • The Center for Urban Education examines the lagging performance of urban schools and how to address the myriad resulting social issues.

Efforts include an NSF-funded project to teach innovative methods of middle-school math instruction.

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research

Rankings • For FY 2011, UAB had federal research expenditures of $343 million and total research expenditures exceeding $500

Centers and Major Grants

million.

• In 2011, the Comprehensive Cancer Center received a

research funding and 20th in

$27.5-million grant from the National Cancer Institute to renew

funding from the NIH among

support through 2016. From 2007 to 2010, the center’s research

academic institutions.

funding grew from $79.5 million to $111.8 million annually. UAB has one of the original 13 NIH-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers; it holds more Specialized Program of Research Excellence grants than all but three institutions.

• UAB ranks 30th in federal

• In the 2011 Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities, UAB is ranked 34th in clinical medicine, 52nd in life

• UAB is home to one of 11 NIH-designated Centers for AIDS

sciences and 127th in social

Research.

sciences.

• UAB was named one of 25 inaugural members of an NIH-funded neuroscience research consortium created to rapidly advance new treatments.

• The School of Dentistry is one of three schools selected for a $25-million grant from the NIH to lead a national effort to improve dental care.

• NIH has designated UAB as one of only six Diabetes Research and Training Centers in the country, putting the university at the forefront in development of new methods to treat, prevent and ultimately cure diabetes.

• UAB excels at taking discoveries from the lab to the bedside in the form of revolutionary treatments and therapies. The Center for Clinical and Translational Science, created with a $26.9-million NIH grant, accelerates the bench-to-bedside process through partnerships among UAB researchers, our community and other premier health centers around the nation.

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External Collaboration UAB ’s research reach includes more than 60 countries and Antarc tica. In addition, UAB teams with more than 4 0 collaborations in A AU institutions to address world issues.

• As featured in the New York Times, UAB’s Center for Infectious Disease Research UAB’s efforts in Zambia, in collaboration with the Zambian government and the University of North Carolina, have placed more than 100,000 individuals on anti-retroviral therapies and have prevented the transmission of HIV to nearly 10,000 newborn infants.

in Zambia is perhaps the most successful of the programs funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

This center has become an active site for UAB research, with nutritionists, nurses, epidemiologists, and basic scientists all leading projects.

It also is an important training site for students interested in international health.

• The Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology is a collaboration including such institutions as Duke and Harvard to design, develop and test new HIV vaccine candidates.

• The Southeast Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense, a consortium of investigators from six universities including Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Florida, Vanderbilt and Emory, is working to develop the next generation of vaccines, drugs and diagnostic tests against emerging infections such as SARS, and for defense against organisms such as smallpox that might be used in bioterrorist attacks.

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research Technology Transfer and Economic Development • In just over two decades, the UAB Research Foundation has created more than $60 million in royalty and license fees with more than 2,100 invention disclosures, 650 patents and more than 400 licenses and other agreements.

• UAB’s technology transfer enterprise has spawned more than 50 successful startup companies based on the university’s discoveries.

The new Commercialization Advisory Committee formally brings UAB together with the business, entrepreneurial and finance communities to:

• Capitalize on commercialization opportunities • Speed up tech-transfer • Spawn start-up companies

• The Innovation Depot, in which UAB is a founding partner, is the largest incubator in the Southeast and in 2011 was named the top high-tech incubator in the nation by the National Business Incubation Association. The Depot has had a sales impact of $1.4 billion over the past five years.

• The Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA) and UAB coordinated strategic planning in 2010, agreeing to focus on the growth of these targeted business sectors: arts, entertainment, and tourism; finance and insurance; health-care services; metal and steel manufacturing; diverse manufacturing; trade and distribution; and biological and medical technology.

UAB has collaborated with the Birmingham Business Alliance on three joint recruits, each with a wealth of experience in marketing new technologies and incubating successful start-ups, bringing together all three elements of the tech-transfer “eco-system” in a new initiative called “i2i” or “Invention to Innovation”:

• IP portfolio (Research Foundation)— Scouting promising technologies, currently ranging from a sportssafety product to a cyber-security app to a novel surgical tool • Entrepreneurial training (School of Business)—Refining the “Innovation & Entrepreneurship” program that trains students and researchers in the business of commercialization • Mentorship (BBA)—Matching the most promising innovators with technology-specific business mentors to successfully launch new companies

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A Center for the Arts • UAB’s Alys Stephens Center is Birmingham’s home

Francisco-based Project Bandaloop, a troupe that

for the performing arts, hosting world-renowned

blends dance, sport, ritual and environmental

acts as well as riveting performances by UAB’s own

awareness into breathtaking aerial performances.

acclaimed music and theatre departments.

• Van Cliburn medal-winner Yakov Kasman, professor of music, tours worldwide in addition to his teaching schedule.

rehearsals to which the community was invited.

• Also in 2011, the ASC created a unique residency bringing together the quilters of Gee’s Bend,

• Henry Panion, University Professor and winner

Alabama, and Groupe Bogolon Kasobane, mud-cloth

of the Governor’s Arts Award from the Alabama

masters of Bamako, Mali.

State Council on the Arts, has composed/arranged for Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, among others.

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• The week in residence featured free outdoor

• The residency, “Common Threads: Quilters of West Alabama Meet Mud Cloth Makers of West Africa,” showcased the artistry of two of

• To kick off its 15th season in 2011 with the theme

the world’s most vibrant contemporary textile

“Flirting with Boundaries,” the ASC brought in San

traditions.

arts and culture at uab

Film Studies Under the direction of a renowned anthropologist and an award-winning filmmaker, students in UAB’s Media Studies program learn the history, theory and practice of digital storytelling and filmmaking.

The original student films are created through a semesterlong research assignment in which students investigate a social-justice issue related to a local community or culture; the films are then screened for the community, including in the McWane Center’s IMAX Theater and Birmingham’s popular Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival.

Using state-of-the-art digital recording equipment, the students have interviewed scores of people, including a former chief prosecutor during the civil rights era, an F-5 tornado survivor and a 100-year-old grandmother who beats an African drum for fun.

In 2011, the program was designated a community partner of StoryCorps, a national touring oral history project, and has since launched a StoryCorps course where students edit and transcribe Birmingham narratives.

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A Growing Cultural Hub The Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, now under construction, will house the UAB College of Arts and Science’s Department of Art and Art History.

arts plaza for interdisciplinary and multimedia events.

The new institute, which will meet American Association of Museums environmental standards,

The institute will feature three spacious, climate-

will greatly enhance UAB’s abilities to curate and host

controlled galleries and storage areas that will

exhibits and collaborate with other arts agencies in

house and protect works in the university collection,

Birmingham.

including photographs by Andy Warhol.

This leading-edge facility is designed by nationally

Students will enjoy a gathering lounge, an atrium/

recognized architect Randall Stout of Los Angeles, who

gallery concourse, a sculpture garden to house the

worked with Frank Gehry as senior associate for seven

extensive UAB outdoor sculpture collection and an

years. The institute is expected to open by June 2013.

ArtPlay The ArtPlay program, conducted by UAB’s Alys Stephens Center for the Performing Arts, is arts outreach at its most engaging and enriching. Conducted in a beautifully renovated Victorian home near campus and done in partnership with local artists and UAB faculty and students, ArtPlay offers classes, workshops and performances for aspiring musicians, dancers and visual artists of all ages.

An extension of ArtPlay, called ArtReach, takes the classes to inner-city Birmingham and the low-income Woodlawn community, making art accessible to the broadest possible audience and using creative expression to meet social needs.

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arts and culture at uab

Creative Contributions Two UAB students—majoring in theatre and music—will go to the national Kennedy Center College Theater Festival in Washington, D.C., in April, after winning the KCACTF Sound Design Award and National Festival Fellowship. The pair won for their original compositions and sound effects for Bertolt Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” presented

by Theatre UAB in October 2011. The student composers worked for months writing original music for the words and lyrics in Brecht’s songs.

Gospel Truth The UAB Gospel Choir is a popular music performance class open to all UAB students. It also is a national and international ambassador for the university, receiving critical acclaim in newspapers, on television and online.

The choir’s songs have frequently appeared on gospel radio charts and playlists.

The choir’s international impact led to an invitation to perform in London in 2011, and fans have traveled from as far away as Australia to see the choir live. The group has released two CDs, conducted an East Coast tour and performed live on NBC’s Today Show with Al Roker.

Recently, the Gospel Choir released “Legacy,” a compilation CD selected from recordings over its 15-year history. Their latest release is the single “You Don’t Know What I Could Have Been,” a tribute to the four little girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963.

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outreach and impact Toward a Healthier Alabama • Medical and nursing faculty and students volunteer at a neighboring free clinic and treat some 675 indigent patients annually. The School of Dentistry conducts thousands of free dental screenings every year.

• UAB optometry faculty and interns use a fully stocked mobile eye clinic to examine patients in underserved areas in and around Birmingham. The mobile clinic features state-of-the-art exam rooms and an onboard dispensary where patients may select their new glasses.

• Since 2002, the UAB Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center has assisted UAB

UAB Hospital provided some $118 million in uncompensated care in 2011.

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investigators to receive more than $80 million in federal funding to reduce minority health disparities; trained more than 500 Community Health Advisors (CHAs), who serve Birmingham’s inner city and Alabama’s Black Belt region; engaged more than 60,000 community members in 12 Alabama counties in health education and promotion activities; provided preventive health screenings to more than 6,000 people; delivered an after-school program for nutrition and physical activity to more than 500 underserved children in 12 Birmingham schools; and significantly reduced disparities among lower-income women at higher risk for breast cancer.

• In March 2011, the center opened UAB HealthSmart, an innovative wellness and prevention facility in downtown Birmingham, in an

EatRight UAB’s nationally acclaimed EatRight nutritional program brings together an expert team of university physicians, dietitians and exercise trainers to provide guidance and services to the community based on the latest research and discoveries in nutrition sciences. Recently EatRight partnered with Piggly Wiggly grocery stores to feature its Nutrition Guidance System icons (forks denoting the healthiest food choices) on more than 400 food items in 14 local stores, with plans to expand to as many as 5,000 items during 2012. The system also provides nutrition information, meal planning tips and easyto-make healthy recipes.

effort to lower rates of chronic disease through comprehensive health profile screenings, nutrition and fitness classes, health education talks and other primary and secondary prevention services. To date, UAB HealthSmart has served more than 1,100 individuals.

Tornado Relief In the immediate aftermath of the devastating tornadoes that struck Alabama on April 27, 2011, UAB Hospital’s Emergency Department treated 134 victims. Thereafter, every UAB school was involved in some capacity in the relief effort. With $250,000 in anonymous gifts raised by the UAB Educational Foundation, the School of Business partnered with a

• The School of Public Health recently

bank and a local law firm to establish the UAB Tornado

received a five-year, $31.7-million

Relief Forgivable Loan Program. Business students

renewal award from the Eunice Kennedy

administered the program to provide much-needed

Shriver National Institute of Child Health

financial assistance to affected individuals and families.

and Human Development for the UAB Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/ AIDS Interventions (ATN). The ATN develops novel interventions and therapies for HIV prevention in predominately minority populations not served by any other networks or programs.

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outreach and impact Community Outreach • “Into the Streets,” a biannual event in partnership with Habitat for Humanity and other service agencies, enlists upwards of 800 UAB students for volunteer projects throughout Birmingham.

• The School of Engineering provides mentoring, funding and materials over the course of each year to area high-schoolers participating in its “Blazer Best” robotics competition, which hosts students from 25 area schools, including all seven Birmingham City high schools.

• UAB accounting students partner with United Way to annually provide free tax preparation on weekends in February and March, assisting roughly 130 low-income clients each year.

• The once-abandoned, now-refurbished headquarters of the Desert Island Supply Co. (DISCO), in Birmingham’s low-income Woodlawn community, is home to an innovative creative-writing program for area students. Developed and led by a UAB writing instructor, DISCO is conducted by volunteers from UAB English department in partnership with the local high school and public library, as well as Birmingham’s Community Education Department.

DISCO has hosted numerous poetry and writing workshops, and in fall 2012, volunteer Joey Kennedy—UAB alumnus, Pulitzer prize-winning editorial writer at the Birmingham News, and adjunct writing instructor at UAB—plans to direct a civics workshop tied to the state gubernatorial election in November. Participants will write letters to the new governor, asking questions and offering suggestions.

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Economic Impact Over four decades, UAB’s strong partnership with its community has led to the economic revival of Birmingham, from a primarily steel and manufacturing-based economy to a thriving one based on health-care, finance and other service industries. UAB’s tremendous economic impact continues to grow as the university works with the Birmingham Business Alliance toward the aims of Blueprint Birmingham—along with other organizations such as Operation New Birmingham, the Alabama Development Office and the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama—to spur

Time Is Money Every year, UAB generates $4.6 billion in the state of Alabama, or $1 of every $25 in the state’s budget. That is...

$383 $12.6 m illi o n

per month

m illi o n

per week

$525,114 $8,751

per Hour per minute

synchronous growth and development for the city, state and region. According to the 2010 UAB Economic Study, conducted by a leading national firm: • UAB has a $4.6-billion annual economic impact on Alabama, which is projected to grow over a decade to $6.6 billion, generate 72,449 jobs and create $431.4 million in

state and local tax revenue.

• As Alabama’s largest single employer, with more than 21,500 employees, UAB also supports 61,025 jobs state-wide—that’s one of

UAB ResearcH Impact

every 33 jobs in Alabama.

• $1 in every $25 in the state’s

2020**

2009*

budget is generated by UAB.

$1 billion

state, UAB returns $16.23.

$1.4 billion

• For every dollar invested in UAB by the

* actual ** projected

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A Brief History of UAB UAB is a young, dynamic university that has, over four

the formation of the Hillman and Jefferson Hospital

decades, won international renown for its leading-edge

complex, which was later complemented by the

research, medical care and academic programs at the

Medical College of Alabama (originally located in

undergraduate and graduate levels.

Mobile, then moved to Tuscaloosa), which relocated to

The evolution of UAB is a remarkable and singular

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Birmingham in 1945.

story in higher education. Entrepreneurialism,

In 1969, Alabama Governor Albert Brewer announced

resourcefulness and collaboration drove UAB’s ascent

the formation of the University of Alabama System

to global prominence. At the same time, it fueled

comprising three autonomous campuses, one of which

the economic, social and cultural renaissance of

was a new university called UAB. The university named

Birmingham—helping transform a steel town into a

as its first president Dr. Joseph Volker, who famously

thriving nexus of research and medicine, banking and

declared, “We would do Birmingham a great disservice

other service industries.

if we dreamed too little dreams.”

In 1936, the University of Alabama opened a modest

UAB dreamed big and acted boldly. From the

“extension center” in Birmingham, in a two-story

beginning, funding and resources were very tight.

clapboard house—the dining room housed the library

But as faculty and students were forced to share

and bedrooms were converted to classrooms for an

lab space, classrooms and equipment, they were

inaugural class of 116 students. The genesis of UAB’s

also sharing knowledge. The result was an intensely

academic health center lies in the early 1900s with

collaborative, interdisciplinary culture that began

appendix 1 The evolution of UAB is a remarkable and singular story in higher education. securing very competitive federal research funding.

As the sciences began to merge and become less compartmentalized—and NIH and NSF started looking to fund interdisciplinary research—UAB was ahead of the curve. Collaboration is truly in the DNA of the institution and remains at the heart of its robust research enterprise.

That collaborative culture permeates all schools and departments—in the social sciences, business, education, arts and humanities, as well as science and medicine—and engages students at all levels, starting in their freshman year. Undergraduates are afforded exceptional opportunities for research, scholarship and mentoring (through the Honors College and innovative courses such as the undergraduate neurosciences program) that they might not otherwise have until their graduate years.

These opportunities to study and conduct research alongside internationally respected faculty have been largely responsible for UAB’s burgeoning enrollment— three consecutive years of record overall enrollment, reaching 17,575 in fall 2011, as UAB welcomed its bestprepared freshman class ever.

The collaborative culture does not end at the edge of campus. The university continues its historical partnership with its community and state in a number of efforts, such as strengthening the K-12 pipeline to higher education and growing intellectual capital for the 21st-century global economy. UAB remains the state’s largest single employer, with more than 21,500 employees—supporting one of every 33 jobs statewide—and has an annual economic impact of $4.6 billion on Alabama.

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appendix 2 UAB STEM Education and Outreach With its intensely collaborative culture, UAB offers students exceptional opportunities in the STEM disciplines with research experiences that are hands-on and closely mentored, fostering an intense interest and deep understanding of STEM early on in the university career, often in the freshman year. UAB has long promoted immediate and firsthand student participation in leadingedge research—an approach recently espoused in a President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report titled “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in STEM.” This approach is pursued well beyond campus as well, as UAB partners with K-12 schools throughout its community and state to strengthen the pipeline to higher education in the critical STEM fields. In this way, UAB continues to prepare, educate and train a science and technology work force to enable Birmingham, Alabama and the United States to remain competitive in today’s global knowledge economy.

Research Experience • Freshmen are required in their first semester to enroll in Freshman Learning Communities (FLCs) that enhance their coursework through additional group study and faculty instruction on a particular theme. STEM-themed FLCs have included “Engage in Engineering,” “Making and Breaking Codes” (computer sciences and math), and “Health without Borders” (global public health).

• In the past two years, the University Honors Program has produced, among other award winners, a Rhodes Scholar, a Truman Scholar, an NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Scholar (one of only 15 nationally) and four Goldwater Scholars.

• The Undergraduate Program in the Neurosciences provides the type of intense, closely mentored research experience that most universities offer only at the graduate level. In

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February 2012, students in this program won two of only 15 United Negro College Fund/Merck Undergraduate Research Scholarships awarded nationally.

• Graduate students are actively involved in UAB’s globally respected cybercrime investigation program, which partners with such agencies as the FBI, CIA, IRS, Homeland Security and Interpol. Recently, a graduate student and his faculty mentor were publicly thanked by Facebook for their leading role in eliminating a destructive virus that plagued the site for over three years.

• The university’s newly-established Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research (CIA/ JFR) is a leading-edge cyberforensics program that is the only one of its kind in the nation. The center brings together the College of Arts & Sciences and schools of Business and Health Professions to conduct research and scholarship, develop new cybersecurity products and services, and train a new generation of forensic professionals who are skilled and agile enough to combat the cyber-tactics of tomorrow. Collaborating with business, industry and law enforcement, UAB remains at the vanguard of the fight against cybercrime, reducing or eliminating serious threats to citizens, commerce and national security.

• Industry partners around the nation are lending their invaluable experience and expertise to CIA/JFAR—the likes of Google, eBay, UPS, Citibank and Facebook.

• UAB partners with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, Alabama District Attorneys Association and local law enforcement in the very successful Operation Swordphish program, which investigates cyberfraud around the state.

• UAB recently helped the FBI and NASA identify seven foreign nationals who were conducting a massive internet fraud that infected more than 400 million computers in 100 countries worldwide and scammed $14 million.

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• The new master’s in biotechnology degree is

undergraduate degrees to African-Americans in the

training students for a field where jobs are growing

allied health diagnostic, intervention and treatment

at a rate of 14.4 percent nationally, as average

professions.

growth in other fields is 4.3 percent.

• UAB is among only 15 universities nationwide

• The UAB-led Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority

with a five-year, $2-million Research and Academic

Participation (LSAMP) has supported more than

Career Development Award from NIH to increase

12,500 Alabama minority students earning

the number of minority students entering careers

undergraduate and graduate STEM degrees.

in biomedical research and to expand partnerships

• LSAMP’s “Bridge to the Doctorate” has

with historically black universities.

supported 25 African-American doctoral

• UAB is also recruiting, training and hiring more

students at UAB and 47 at other institutions

women in STEM disciplines. Female graduate

across the state.

enrollment in the School of Engineering (led by a

• According to Diverse: Issues in Higher Education (formerly Black Issues in Higher Education), UAB is the top university nationally for awarding

female dean) has almost doubled in the past decade (47 to 86), and more female STEM faculty are being hired and retained through the NSF-funded UAB ADVANCE program.

The Leonardo Art and Engineering Certificate equips students for the burgeoning field of computer 3-D modeling.

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appendix 2 Reaching Out to the Community and State • The Center for Community OutReach Development (CORD) was established in 1998 to advance K-12 STEM education in the community, state and nation, with a particular focus on closing achievement gaps along racial and gender lines. CORD promotes professional development of teachers and early engagement of students to increase their competitiveness for admission to university STEM programs. These aims are being accomplished through innovative CORD programs conducted on-site in Birmingham area schools, at CORD’s GENEius and LabWorks classrooms at Birmingham’s McWane Science Center, and in CORD’s laboratory classrooms on the UAB campus.

• CORD has provided in-depth, hands-on, inquiry-based science experiences for 59,500 K-12 students and 1,334 teachers statewide.

• CORD hosts the annual Central Alabama Science and Engineering Fair, the largest in Alabama.

The 2012 Fair is expected to involve nearly 500 students from 22 counties. In 2010, nine participants went on to win prizes at the national level, including the INTEL Grand Prize in Biology.

• More than 60 area elementary and middle

• The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

school students participated in CORD’s 2011 M3

program, funded by NSF and NASA, allows students

(Multiple Mentoring Model) Camp, a two-week,

to participate in active research normally not

NSF-funded summer program for students from

available until graduate school.

underserved communities to learn high-level computing skills.

• Students pursue research projects in physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, biomedical

• At a January 2012 NIH Council of Councils

engineering, materials science, physiology and

meeting, Acting Director of the National Center

dentistry, all of which are linked to ongoing

for Research Resources Louise Ramm recognized

interdisciplinary research projects between

CORD as a model among NIH-funded Science

faculty in these departments and faculty in the

Education Partnership Award (SEPA) programs.

Department of Physics.

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The Research Experience for Undergraduates program allows students to participate in active research normally not available until graduate school.

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appendix 2

• More than 150 students from more than 60 undergraduate institutions have taken part in this program.

• Several undergraduates supported by this program have published first-author publications in peer-reviewed journals and attended national meetings to present their original research.

• A summer Research Experiences for (high school) Teachers (RET) has run in parallel with REU, and more than 25 teachers have participated.

• The NSF-funded Greater Birmingham Mathematics Partnership—a collaboration among UAB , Birmingham-Southern College and 13 high schools and middle schools in seven area school districts— has provided professional development for more than 1,400 area math teachers.

• The School of Education’s GEMS (Girls Engaged in Math and Science) program hosted more than 100 area K-12 students and 30 teachers at the 2011 “GEMS-U” Exposition showcasing student projects at Birmingham’s McWane Science Center.

• As part of an Honors College Leadership Preparation Course, members of UAB’s Science and Technology Honors Program planned, raised funds for and conducted a Science Olympiad that hosted 200 area high school students from 14 schools.

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