The art of WE at UAB

Shelby Biomedical Research Building. Credit: Courtesy of the University of Alabama at Birmingham" />Shelby Biomedical Research Building. Credit: Courtesy of the University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham prides itself on a culture of cross-disciplinary collaboration, which could be why the university rocketed from 47th place in our 2007 survey to 5th place this year. An embodiment of UAB's cooperative spirit can be seen

Written byBob Grant

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The University of Alabama at Birmingham prides itself on a culture of cross-disciplinary collaboration, which could be why the university rocketed from 47th place in our 2007 survey to 5th place this year. An embodiment of UAB's cooperative spirit can be seen in the university's new Richard C. and Annette N. Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building, which opened in 2006. Since then immunologists, neurobiologists, and others have been setting up shop in its labs and offices.

The Shelby Building, however, is just the latest addition to a healthy tradition of collaboration at the school. UAB maintains 17 university-wide research centers that are based on cross-departmental relationships and interdisciplinary study. Designed to be collaborative, each must involve at least three schools within the university, says Robert Rich, senior vice president for medicine and dean of UAB's School of Medicine. The signature research hub is the Center for Aging, which pulls together ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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