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A Brief History of UAH

An in depth history of UAH can be found here

The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) began in January 1950 as the Huntsville Center, a branch of the University of Alabama located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Morton Hall, with its traditional columns, is UAH's oldest building, and housed academic programs for the Huntsville Center's original 137 students.

Before this Center was established, however, efforts were underway to place major portions of the U.S. Army's rocket research and development activities as well as NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in the Huntsville area. These activities took place between the early 1940s through the 1960s, and had a major impact on the future of what was then a small, but emerging, town known as Huntsville.

NASA wanted to provide educational opportunities for their employees, and major aerospace corporations began to locate in the area that was fast becoming a hub of the U.S. space program. The need for advanced education in science and technology was acknowledged and supported by individual citizens and organizations, alike.

Rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun traveled to Tuscaloosa along with NASA and Army officials on a mission to encourage the University of Alabama to establish a research institute in Huntsville. The purpose of such an institute would be to accelerate the educational program in Huntsville and to provide theoretical and experimental research pertinent to aerospace science and missile fields. Dr. von Braun made a persuasive presentation before the Alabama Legislature in June 1961 requesting a $3 million bond issue to support the institute. Dr. von Braun could foresee the economic benefit for the entire state of Alabama, and intended the money he requested to be used for land, buildings and equipment to bring this concept into reality.

Both houses of the Legislature unanimously passed the bill, and Research Institute was constructed on campus. Master's level degrees were offered in 1963 and at the baccalaureate level in 1964. By 1969, UAH was made an autonomous university, part of the University of Alabama System with campuses in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and Huntsville. Each campus had their own president, and Dr. Benjamin Graves served as UAH's first president from 1970 to 1978.

This was a time of rapid growth for Huntsville and UAH. And though its roots were planted firmly in the space program, UAH included study in the humanities as an important part of its undergraduate programs. English and history were among the first programs offered at the baccalaureate level. Early enrollments in the humanities and liberal arts kept pace with, and sometimes exceeded, those in science and engineering during the 1970s.

In 1978, Dr. John Wright was named president of UAH, a post he held until May, 1988. During that decade, UAH capitalized on its ties with Huntsville business and technology communities, and research centers in optics, microgravity, robotics, and space plasma were founded. In 1987, a UAH physics professor and his graduate students made a remarkable breakthrough in the study of superconductivity that made headlines across the nation and around the world.

Dr. Louis Padulo became UAH's third president in 1988, bringing a vision of campus growth and student housing to fruition. Construction of the Materials Science Building, Optics Building and student dormitory were started. In September, 1989, UAH's first Eminent Scholar joined the university in electrical and computer engineering.

Huntsville leader Joseph Moquin took over the UAH presidency on an interim basis in 1990. His able leadership provided a steady hand at the helm, and students, faculty, and staff benefited from his tenure.

In July 1991, Dr. Frank Franz was named president of UAH, ushering in an era of a unified university, true to its comprehensive teaching and research mission. "We must maintain and extend our preeminence in research, particularly with emphasis in science, engineering, and technology, balanced with fostering and developing the liberal arts, humanities and business," Dr. Franz said in an interview with UAH Magazine. "Our university is an institution with remarkable success already achieved, but with even greater potential for the future. Our faculty and staff are talented and productive, our students rank among the most dedicated and successful in Alabama, and our performance in research is extraordinary."

In fact, UAH consistently has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the best regional universities and is now listed among the magazine’s national universities in its annual ranking. Eminent Scholar Chairs have been filled in Administrative Science and Propulsion and Chairs have been established for Physics, Humanities and Systems Engineering and Simulation to further enrich the academic,cultural and research environment of the university.

Today, more than 7,000 students take advantage of the 59 academic and professional majors offered by UAH through the colleges of Liberal Arts, Administrative Science, Engineering, Science, Nursing, and Graduate Studies.