AlumniBulletin - University of Alabama at Birmingham

Cover Story
The
Changing
Face of
Medicine
Behind the Expansion
of the UASOM
By Shane Ivey
Let’s take a snapshot: the University of Alabama
School of Medicine at UAB . . . in the year 2010.
No, you don’t see flying cars over every corner or
android assistants in every office. But you do see a medical
research center among the top 10 in the country, a peerless
health system, and one of the most competitive medical
schools in the world.
In our snapshot, some of the university’s most prominent
buildings are only a few years old. There’s the Richard
M. and Annette C. Shelby Interdisciplinary Research
Building, with research faculty from across the School of
Medicine. There’s Biomedical Research Building II, with
its world-renowned research on oxygen free radicals and
human gene therapy. There’s the renovated Volker Hall,
serving both as an attractive “front door” for the School of
Medicine and as a world-class research facility in its
own right. And let’s not overlook the Hugh
Kaul Human Genetics Building and the
Center for Women’s Research, nearing their
tenth anniversaries, or the pediatric research
group in Children’s Harbor at the Alabama
Children’s Hospital. The list of news-making
research and clinical facilities goes on and on.
Unprecedented Expansions
Back here in 2003, the UASOM has undertaken
unprecedented expansions to make that
snapshot a reality. Most alumni and friends of
the school are familiar with the goal of the
Dean’s Office for the school to be one of the
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