May 13, 2013

Med students earn rehabilitation research externships

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Two University of Alabama at Birmingham medical students have received summer externship awards to study in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. Medical students Cory Smith and Melissa Jordan are recipients of the Rehabilitation Research Experience for Medical Students grant program, offered by the Association of Academic Physiatrists and the Foundation for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.  Smith and Jordan are among only eight students nationally to receive the award.

The awards fund first-year medical students for an eight-week session in scholarly research. The program provides an exciting and structured research experience while exposing the medical student to some of the most successful and respected faculty mentors in the specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Smith, who will be mentored by Candace Floyd, Ph.D., associate professor and director of research in the UAB Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, will work on a preclinical project in traumatic brain injury.  Jordan will work on a clinical study in spinal cord injury under the direction of Elizabeth Richardson, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department.