Vice President for Research, Office of the Vice President for Research; Professor
Administrative Building 720
(205) 934-1294
Research and Teaching Interests: Biology of Plants in Space
Office Hours: By appointment
Education:
- B.S., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- M.S., North Carolina State University
- Ph.D., North Carolina State University
Dr. Brown is the Vice President for Research at UAB and a tenured member of the Department of Biology. He received his B.S. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his M.S. and Ph.D. from North Carolina State University (NCSU). After a postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry at the University of Missouri-Columbia and seven years running the space biology laboratories at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, he returned to NCSU where he took a faculty position in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. Prior to arriving at UAB, he served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Development at NCSU and later as the Vice President for Research at the 16-campus University of North Carolina System.
For many years his research focused on the effects of spaceflight – that is, altered gravity and lighting conditions relative to earth – on plant growth and development. He led and or participated in numerous projects on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. For thirteen years, he offered a popular course on Space Biology for NCSU students. From 2004-2009, this course was a Distance Education offering participated in by undergraduates, the target audience, but also by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, teachers, high school students and working professionals. He served as the President of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology, and as a board member for Research Triangle International, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, and the UNC Coastal Studies Institute. He currently serves on the boards of the Innovation Depot, the MS/AL Sea Grant Consortium, and the Economic Development Foundation of Alabama.
In his current position, Dr. Brown and his team work with stakeholders to broaden and enhance UAB’s >$500M research portfolio, strengthen research support operations, and raise the stature, visibility, and support of the UAB research enterprise nationally and internationally.