Research & Scholarship

Since its formative years, UAB has conducted groundbreaking research and scholarship across the traditional boundaries among disciplines, with different schools and departments sharing resources, labs, and of course, sharing knowledge. The result is an intensely collaborative, interdisciplinary culture that thrives to this day.

Over four decades, that collaborative culture has produced many “firsts" in science and medicine, and that pioneering spirit continues in every classroom, lab, library, and some 80 campuswide, interdisciplinary research centers, as students work alongside faculty toward the next major breakthrough. 

 

    • researcher_in_red232nd nationally in total federal research funding
    • 21st in funding from the National Institutes of Health
    • Classified as an institution of “very high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation
    • Research funding exceeding $503 million in 2011
    • In Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities, ranked top 100 overall and No. 34 in clinical medicine, No. 52 in life sciences, No. 127 in social sciences

 



Pushing the envelope in science and medicine...

UAB faculty and students are daily pushing the envelope in science and medicine. They are engineering revolutionary new materials and composites for use in everything from dental implants to body armor to spacecraft. They are developing new technologies for virtual reality, robotic surgery and cleaner, greener vehicles. And they are shedding new light on a host of human diseases and conditions — from Alzheimer's  to diabetes to AIDS to sickle cell anemia — and giving hope to patients throughout the state, nation and indeed the world.


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antarctica   space_station   egypt_libya_border

UAB research knows no bounds. Literally.

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.

They are using satellite imaging to discover ancient settlements, tombs and pyramids in Egypt--research that was featured in recent BBC and Discovery Channel documentaries--and to track global public health threats at the UAB Laboratory for Global Health Observation.

They are doing vital, leading-edge research in cybercrime perpetrated from computers around the globe, partnering with such agencies as the FBI, IRS, NASA, Homeland Security, CIA and Interpol. A recent NBC special highlighted the leading role of UAB's renowned cyber-forensics program in a global FBI investigation.

They are also pushing the "final frontier." UAB has long partnered with NASA in space exploration, doing crystallography experiments aboard the space shuttle Columbia, operating spectrometers of Mars Rovers,and designing cryogenic freezers that flew aboard space shuttles and the International Space Station.

...And in the Liberal Arts.


As a true "renaissance" university, UAB excels and conducts research and scholarship in a range of disciplines--the sciences and medicine to business and education to the arts and humanities.
 


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