It’s only taken a little more than 50 years for the University of Alabama at Birmingham to establish itself as a national leader. UAB is the only public, four-year degree granting university in the state’s largest metropolitan area, the largest research institution in the state of Alabama, and the largest single employer in the state. Anchored in the 1859 founding of the Medical College of Alabama and the 1936 opening of the Birmingham Extension Center of the University of Alabama, UAB became its own independent institution in 1969. Today, our comprehensive R-1 university and academic medical center is proud to be located in Birmingham: home to 1.1 million metropolitan residents, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement, one of America’s most renowned culinary destinations, and nestled within the stunning natural landscapes of the Appalachian foothills and the Warrior and Cahaba River watersheds.