Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology

University of Tennessee, Memphis

THE UNIVERSITY

Quality Education and Research - a Tennessee Priority 

   Higher education is a priority in Tennessee. State government and Tennessee citizens have made that priority tangible at the University of Tennessee. The UT Memphis faculty and students enjoy a state-of-the-art research campus where building is an ongoing activity. But a university is not just new buildings and laboratories, it’s people: researchers pushing the frontiers of knowledge and technology, educators committed to training the next generation of leaders in biomedical science and medicine, and clinicians dedicated to the health and well-being of their patients. Quality graduate student research and education flourishes only in an environment where the excitement of successful people is pervasive, and opportunities are limited only by imagination and effort. You will find that environment at UT. With a total private endowment exceeding $72 million, Tennesseeans have supported UT where it counts, so too has state government. Of the 35 endowed professorships that UT has received, 19 are Chairs of Excellence jointly funded by private gifts and the State of Tennessee. Moreover, when many states are cutting their commitment to research, the State of Tennessee is supporting three Centers of Excellence on the UT Memphis campus including the Molecular Resource Center which is so important to research activities in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

    Historically, the University of Tennessee, Memphis was founded in 1911 by consolidation of five medical schools with the schools of dentistry and pharmacy. Although the academic campus is in Memphis, its programmatic involvement is statewide. UT Memphis includes the Colleges of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and the Bowld Hospital located in Memphis and the Memorial Hospital and Graduate School of Medicine located at the UT Medical Center in Knoxville. UT Family Medicine centers are situated in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville and UT continuing education courses are offered across the state.

    The Memphis campus is one of the largest academic health sciences centers in the United States and is located in one of the nation’s oldest and largest medical centers. Memphis’ $4.5 billion healthcare industry includes 18 hospitals and nearly 6,000 beds. UT Memphis employs approximately 4,000 faculty and staff and operates physical facilities totaling over 2.9 million square feet on approximately 75 acres in Memphis. UT Memphis has formal affiliations with seven major teaching hospitals in Memphis as well as 14 hospitals across the state. The University also operates the 160 bed William F. Bowld Hospital in Memphis and the 602 bed Memorial Hospital in Knoxville.

General Ed. Building

    One of many unique facilities, the GEB houses the Education Center. It includes lecture halls with the most advanced audio-visual equipment, teaching laboratories, and a learning center. Instructional Laboratories in this facility provide photography, medical illustration, audio-visual and video production, and video disc technology. They also offer assistance in developing specialized courses such as oral communication. Students may take advantage of the department’s workshops in scientific writing. The Learning Center provides special student services and includes study areas and a microcomputer laboratory equipped with fully networked computers for student use.

Health Sciences Library / Biocommunications Center

    One of the newest additions to our campus, The Lamar Alexander Building is the focal point of a comprehensive information system to which every student has direct access. This modern facility contains over 1550 current periodical titles, 40,000 monograph titles and 170,000 volumes. The library’s collection is on-line and is supported by numerous databases. Knowledge Server MEDLINE consists of the unabridged bibliographic data from the National Library of Medicine’s MEDLINE database since 1984. Entrez Sequences is an internet-based retrieval system developed at the National Center for Biotechnology Information which provides an integrated approach for gaining access to nucleotide and protein sequence databases and to the MEDLINE citations in which the sequences were published. The Computing and Telecommunications Center is responsible for the coordination of resources concerned with supporting and serving all information related activities such as computing, telecommunications, information technology training and support. The center is equipped with a DEC-VAX duster comprised of a VAX 8650, a VAX 8000, two VAS 6420’s, and the latest DEC-Alpha computer. The Computing and Telecommunications Center develops and maintains the University’s Local Area Network (LAN) which connects over 2,000 computers and peripherals in over 50 buildings in and around the campus. Computer links outside the campus are maintained through DECNET, TC/IP/XNS and other proprietary protocols. Internet navigators utilize these links and connect laboratory researchers to enormous medical and research information sources through-out the world.

Other Campus Facilities & Services

    A new consolidated animal facility was recently constructed. With a staff headed by three veterinarians, these professionals offer valuable assistance in research involving animal studies.  The Division of Biomedical Instrumentation provides services to assure that the sophisticated scientific instruments and computer systems on campus function in top form.  Finally, the vast resources of the medical center complex immeasurably enhance the opportunity for outstanding collaborative research and interaction with scientists at other area institutions. Serving as a medical referral center for a 76-county region of 2.5 million people, the medical center in Memphis includes a number of noted institutions: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; Baptist Memorial Hospital, the largest privately owned hospital in the country; the Veteran’s Administration Hospital, one of the nation’s largest veterans’ hospitals; the University of Memphis; and LeBonheur Children’s Medical Center, the largest children’s medical center in the entire Southeast.