The University of Alabama in Huntsville history

In March 1970, Doctor Benjamin Graves was appointed UAH's first president, and a few months later, the new university celebrated its first official graduation ceremony.

College of Communication and Information Sciences in 1973

With Doctor Grave's retirement in 1978, Doctor John Wright was named president of UAH. During the next decade, the university capitalized on its ties with Huntsville's business and technology communities, establishing research centers in optics, microgravity, robotics, and space plasma.

The first woman to earn a Ph.D. from UAH was Virginia Kobler in 1979, in Industrial Engineering.

Doctor Louis Padulo became UAH's third president in 1988, overseeing the start of construction on the Materials Science Building, Optics Building, and a second residence hall.

Huntsville leader Joseph Moquin took over the UAH presidency on an interim basis in 1990.

Huntsville business leader Joseph Moquin then served as interim president for one year until Doctor Frank Franz was appointed in 1991.

It first offered distance learning courses in 1992.

Her renown in the scientific community was reaffirmed when she was named executive officer of the American Physical Society in 1994.

On July 1, 2007, Doctor David B. Williams, formerly a professor of materials science and engineering and the vice provost for research at Lehigh University, began serving as UAH's fifth president.

He left in 2011 to join Ohio State University as dean of engineering.

Doctor Darren Dawson began his tenure as the ninth president of UAH in June 2019.