The University of Alabama at Birmingham is an American four-year institution of higher education located in Birmingham, Alabama. The university is part of the three-member University of Alabama System, which also includes the main University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
UAB became an autonomous campus in 1969, 24 years after the UA medical school was relocated to Birmingham. The school is highly renowned for its medical research and natural sciences programs. UAB received over 390 million dollars in federal grants during the past fiscal year for research purposes. This places the school as one of the larger Research Institutions in the Southeast. UAB's enrollment is about 16,000, and it is the largest employer in Birmingham. The school's president is Carol Garrison.
UAB's green-and-gold-swathed athletics teams participate in the NCAA's Division I, and their nickname is the Blazers. UAB is a member of Conference USA, and its football team struggles within Alabama to climb out of the shadows cast by the state's premier football programs, the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide and Auburn University's Tigers. Watson Brown coaches the football team, which plays at 83,901-seat Legion Field. The school's basketball team, led by "Hell ball" disciple Mike Anderson, plays in 8,508-seat Bartow Arena and has once advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA's men's basketball tournament. |
