College of arts and sciences
Spend a minute with this slideshow and enjoy some twin bunnies in the neonatal intensive care unit, spring fun on the Campus Green, dramatic photos of new graduates and more captured by UAB's official photographers in April 2025.
Congratulations to the 19 faculty and staff leaders who completed UAB’s leadership development program this month. Meet the graduates and see the requirements for the 2025-2026 cohort; nominations open in June.
There are now more than 40 City as Classroom courses in UAB’s Blazer Core Curriculum. Data Dive Into Birmingham, launched this past fall, features projects with real-life datasets and guest speakers from local employers such as Alabama Power who explain how they use statistics and data science in their work.
The yearlong program began in June 2024 with a cohort of 18 faculty leaders. It is designed to equip department chairs with the skills necessary to excel as leaders on campus. The next cohort will be selected by early May.
Free will still exists, and no brains are “typical”: Philosopher Josh May, Ph.D., shares some of the lessons he picked up by going back to school and joining a research lab to write “Neuroethics: Agency in the Age of Brain Science,” which was selected as one of the top academic titles of 2024.
Many studies have linked childbearing to a lower risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia later in life. But in a new study, UAB sociologists found that early-life factors, including a woman’s socioeconomic status in adolescence, accounted for the apparent pregnancy-cognitive connection.
Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT pose all kinds of questions for the future of writing instruction. Meagan Malone, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of English, has launched a website and blog called Composing in the Age of GenAI to share ideas and resources and spark conversations with others in the field.
A focus on applying sociology to practical work projects, cutting-edge data analysis and supportive faculty make this one of the nation’s top online graduate programs in the field. In this article, faculty explain what sets it apart and two UAB employees/alumni share how they are using its lessons in their work.
Christian Lopez Blanco, a doctoral student in UAB’s neuroengineering program, pitched his idea to industry leaders at the major BIO convention in San Diego as part of the Bio-Entrepreneurship Capstone program from the National Institutes of Health.
Michele Forman, Samantha Giordano-Mooga and Joe March demonstrated extraordinary commitment to engaging undergraduate students in service learning, undergraduate research and core teaching.
In “Nazi Germany: Society, Culture and Politics,” Jonathan Wiesen, Ph.D., professor in the Department of History, highlights the current understanding, which has been slow to appear in textbooks, of the “tension between coercion and consensus” in the Nazi period, he said.
The 2024 honorees for the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching represent each school, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Honors College, and the Graduate School.
Three students who will present their work at the Summer Expo on Thursday explain the benefits of joining a UAB lab, from peer learning to practicing professional skills and more.
“De-stressing” agents are in everything from cold-brew coffee to supplements. A UAB-trained dietitian explains what adaptogens are and we highlight a preclinical UAB study in breast cancer models.
Brandon Blankenship, J.D., teaching assistant professor and director of the Pre-Law Program in the J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Department of Criminal Justice, shares interactive exercises he uses in the classroom, and how he is using AI in a project to identify suspected bias in judicial decision-making.
Amber Wagner, Ph.D., says AI tools are allowing her to accelerate student learning and can help future programmers keep pace with the constant change that has always been part of the profession.
David Rogers, M.D., chief wellness officer for UAB Medicine, wrote “Frontline Healthcare Leadership” for employees in challenging, high-stress jobs. Its insights can help any Blazer contribute to making UAB an even better place to work, be healed and learn.
The UA System Board of Trustees awarded the rank of Distinguished Professor to Robert Brunner, Yogesh Dwivedi, Helen Krontiras, Cora Elizabeth Lewis, David M. Morris and Michele H. Nichols and the rank of University Professor to Marie Bakitas, Mirjam-Colette Kempf, Verna Keith, Michael Neiderweis and David Vance during its meeting in April 2024.
Have AI models made human creativity obsolete? Lindsay Brainard, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy, received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to pursue an inquiry into the future of creativity — and present her work at the World Congress of Philosophy in Rome this August.
Vern Bush, Kevin Davis and Brittany Martin are the first-quarter 2024 honorees of the UAB Values in Action Program. Nominations for second-quarter 2024 honorees are open through April 24.