UAB Briefs: Breaking ground, fighting cancer, saving vision
Welcome to another installment of UAB Briefs, in which we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
Know people, places and programs on the UAB campus that deserve a mention? Email Iron City Ink at sydney@starnespublishing.com and jchambers@starnespublishing.com
A groundbreaking facility
UAB officials and Birmingham business leaders held a ceremonial ground-breaking on Fri., Dec. 9, for a new building to house the Collat School of Business and Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It will be located on University Boulevard between 12th and 13th streets south.
Charles Collat, who is chairman emeritus of Mayer Electric, and Billy Harbert of BL Harbert International were among the dignitaries who put on hard hats and shoveled some dirt to mark the upcoming beginning of construction, which is expected to last about 18 months, according to a UAB news release.
“We believe that, when completed, this state-of-the-art facility will truly allow us to transform what we do at UAB,” said Eric Jack, dean of the Collat School. “This new building, where business students can meet with others from across campus to collaborate, will enhance students’ ability to participate in hands-on work on intellectual property owned by the university, to write business plans, to start companies.”
The four-story building, measuring about 110,000 square feet, will feature breakout rooms for team and entrepreneurial projects, classrooms designed for team-based learning, a high-tech trading and finance lab and labs for behavioral research and sales presentations, the release states.
The building’s architecture will be similar to that of the recently completed Hill Student Center
In addition to the Collat School and the Harbert IIE, the facility will house the Center for Sales Leadership, the Healthcare Leadership Academy and the Regions Institute for Financial Education, thereby fostering increased collaboration across disciplines.
Rewriting cancer’s story in Africa
A medical doctor and UAB graduate student from Nigeria with a passion for preventing breast and cervical cancer in African women has been awarded a prestigious International Fellowship for 2016-2017 by the American Association of University Women.
The student, Kemi Ogunsina, is a master’s candidate in epidemiology at the UAB School of Public Health.
“This award has given me the opportunity to enhance my training in epidemiologic research and will enable me to continue my work in the area of cancer screening and prevention among women in low- and middle-income countries,” Ogunsina said.
Nigeria is one of those low- and middle-income countries.
Ogunsina told Iron City Ink that the fellowship will help her complete her training at UAB, as well as some ongoing research studies, and to present papers at scientific meetings regarding cancer and chronic diseases in 2017.
It is personally important to Ogunsina to carry on her work, due to her loss of some women she cared about deeply.
“I lost a dear friend at the age of 26 and an aunty at the age of 52 to breast cancer,” she said. “I believe the story would have been different if we had the technology and required preventive knowledge made readily accessible to women.”
Her efforts are important because the number of new cases of breast and cervical cancers are on the increase in Africa, creating a serious public health issue, according to Ogusina.
“I believe now is the time to help re-write the cancer story for other young women in developing countries,” she said.
AAUW International Fellows are selected for their academic achievement, scholarly promise and demonstrated commitment to women and girls.
The first AAUW International Fellowship was awarded in 1917, making it one of the oldest and most prestigious American fellowships.
“It’s all about women helping women,” Gloria Blackwell, AAUW vice president of fellowships, grants and global programs, said in the release.
A doctor for five years, Ogunsina lives on Southside and has attended UAB for about a year and a half.
She’s also worked the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and GATEs-funded projects.
Ogunsina was attracted to the School of Public Health by “the quality of research going on at UAB, the presence of the Comprehensive Cancer Center and highly trained lecturers,” she said. “The UAB MPH program is highly ranked in the U.S.”
The eyes have it
UAB was recently awarded a $2.94 million National Eye Institute Center Core Grant to support and enhance the 15 eligible R01 grants in the UAB School of Optometry and Department of Ophthalmology.
“The grant provides funding to support our lab managers and provide equipment and other resources needed to advance our research,” said Steven Pittler, director of the UAB Vision Science Research Center and a principle investigator.
Vision research at UAB is focused on nine key areas, including glaucoma, cataracts, dry eye, myopia and age-related macular degeneration.
The grant helps investigators enhance their research, save money and resources, and avoid duplication of efforts by providing a service with lower cost or higher quality than would be possible for several individual investigators running independent projects.