UAB Libraries 3D Printing

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Janet Wixson, BS

Janet Wixson was the first female director of the University Computer Center. Janet was the director from 1980 through 1989. 

Janet Wixson was born in Oklahoma and earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.  She eventually relocated with her husband to Birmingham.  In 1970 she was hired as a part-time programmer trainee at the new UAB, where she also completed some graduate work in computer science.  Wixson joined the university’s staff full-time in 1972 as a systems programmer.  In 1980 she became the director of the University Computer Center, the first female to lead the unit, and in 1984 she became director of UAB’s Computing and Communication Services.  Wixson left UAB in 1989 when she was hired as the Executive Director of Academic and Administrative Computing Services at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. 

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Sarah Cole Brown, BS

In 1971 she was named as the first director of the university’s new Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences and was promoted to professor.

A native of Arkansas, Brown obtained an undergraduate degree from Hendix College in 1933 and a B.S. in library science from the University of Illinois in 1939. She worked at the library at Alabama college (Now the University of Montevallo) and at the Maxwell Air force Base in Montgomery. In 1948 she joined the faculty of the three-year old medical center library in Birmingham as an instructor and cataloger. Brown would remain at UAB for the remainder of their professional career. In 1955 she became the library director. Brown would retire from UAB at the end of 1977. She was active in several professional organizations and was a charter member and president of the Medical Library Associate. Sarah Cole Brown remained in the Birmingham area and passed away in 2015 at the age of 103. 

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Ruth Stillman Hare, PhD

Ruth Stillman Hare received the very first doctoral degree awarded to a student for work done at the new medical center campus in Birmingham.

Ruth Stillman Hare was born in New York. In 1936 she earned an undergraduate degree from Vassar College. She then went to the University of Buffalo where she was a graduate student and a research assistant. Ruth Stillman Hare and her husband, Kendrick Hare, PhD, MD came to Birmingham in 1951 when he was recruited to serve as the chair of the Department of Pediatrics. In Birmingham, she worked as a research associate in the pharmacology department and in 1955 received a PhD in Pharmacology. Ruth Stillman Hare received the very first doctoral degree awarded to a student for work done at the new medical center campus in Birmingham. Her dissertation – UAB’s first doctoral dissertation – was The Control of Water Reabsorption in the Dog Kidney by the Antidiuretic Hormone of the Neurohypophysis (1955). Dr. Hare was then on the faculty in the pharmacology department. In 1967 she and her husband took leaves of absence from UAB in order to work at the Cholera Research laboratory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, part of a project of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. The Hares returned to the US in 1974 and retired to California.

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Neelaksh Varshney, PhD

In 199 Varshney became the first UAB student to be awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

Neal Varshney of Madison, Alabama, received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from UAB in 2000. At UAB Varshney was a member of the Honors Program and the Early Medical School Acceptance Program and was the recipient of the Charles W. Ireland Presidential Scholarship, the university's top award for an incoming freshmen. Varshney was also a UAB Ambassador, was selected as the UAB student representative to the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System, was chosen Mr. UAB for 1999, and was a member of Tau Beta Pi. In 1999 Varshney became the first UAB student to be awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship; he studied at Oxford University in England where he received a master's degree in Neuroscience and Mathematical Modeling. Varshney graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed an internal medicine internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Varshney is currently director of the Healthcare Team at KKR & Co., a global investment and private equity firm.   

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Dorothy Carol Ogdon, MBA, MSIS

Dorothy Ogdon, MBA, MSIS, is a UAB Librarian and graduate of the Collat School of Business. In August 2016, Dorothy joined the Lister Hill Library Reference department as the Liaison to the School of Dentistry. Dorothy also arrived at UAB with an interest in 3D printing. With the support of UAB Libraries administration and several colleagues, she applied for and was awarded an internal UAB Faculty Development Grant to purchase 3D printers. Using the printers, Dorothy created 18 models including a model of the skull of Phineas Gage, a model of bones of the foot, and models of the heart of a 17-year-old female. The models were cataloged and were added to the 3D collection located at the Lister Hill Library HUB Desk where they are still available for checkout. The printers purchased through the grant became the foundation of the 3D printing technology now available in the Libraries. The libraries’ Emerging Technologies program now includes four technology-focused spaces that provide access to 3D printers, virtual reality headsets, and a wide variety of technology for media-intensive projects such as editing podcasts, movies, or developing virtual and augmented reality applications. 

Dorothy served as a mentor in the University’s Health Educator’s Academy, a member of the UAB Faculty Senate representing the UAB Libraries, a non-scientist member of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and a member of the university’s Conflict of Interest Review Board.  She collaborates on extended-reality projects with teams in Professional Education in the Collat School of Business and the Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation. As the current Head of Emerging Technology and System Development in UAB Libraries Technology and Technical Services Dorothy continues to lead the exploration and integration of extended reality, 3D printing, and other emerging technologies in library services, as well as overseeing departmental operations.  

Josiah C. Macy, Jr., PhD

Josiah C. Macy, Jr. was born in New York City, He graduated with a chemistry degree from the Massachusetts institute of Technology and in 1954 received a PhD in Mathematics from the same institution. Dr. Macy held faculty positions at MIT, John Hopkins University, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1967 he was recruited to Birmingham as the inaugural director of the Division of Biophysical Sciences, a joint-health science unit at the Medical Center. Dr. Macy also held faculty appointments as professor of Biocommunication and as professor of Physiology and Biophysics. From 1967 until 1972 Dr. Macy was the first chair Department of Information Sciences. He was also director of UAB's Computer Research Laboratory. Dr. Macy retired from UAB in 1978 due to health reasons. Following his death, the Josiah C. Macy, Jr. Research Computer Center at UAB was named in his honor. As noted at the time, Dr. Macy " was instrumental in the development of the UAB computers centers and in the adaptation of computers for medical use."  

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Dai Kee Liu, PhD

Dr. Liu was the second person to graduate from the newly independent University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dai Kee Liu was born in Taiwan, Republic of China, and came to the medical center in Birmingham in 1967 as a research assistant in endocrinology. Liu worked in the laboratory of Experimental Endocrinology under the director of UAB's pioneering researcher, Dr. Charles D. Kochakian. In 1969 Liu began a research fellowship in biochemistry while working on his doctoral degree. He received his PhD (Biochemistry) from UAB in 1970 at the university's first commencement ceremony.  

Imogene Landford Baswell, PhD

Imogene received a bachelor's degree in Engineering in 1969, becoming the first female to graduate from the University's engineering program in Birmingham.

Imogene L. Baswell. a student from Bessemer, Alabama, received a bachelor's degree in Engineering in 1969, becoming the first female to graduate from the engineering program. She studied on part-time basis with night and weekend classes while she held a full-time job in the metallurgy department a Sothern Research Institute. Baswell also earned a master's degree in Engineering from UAB in 1976 and, in 1981 would earn a PhD in bioengineering from Clemson Univeristy. Dr, Baswell was a biomedical metallurgist with the Richards Medical Co., a company specializing in orthopedic products, and she obtained three US patents related o metal orthopedic implants and the implant production process. Baswell was also the first female police officer in Birmingham.   

Rosalie "Rose" Natasi Andrews Scripa, PhD

Rose came to UAB in 1977 as the first female appointed to a full-time faculty position at the School of Engineering.

Rose Scripa is a native of New York. She received a bachelor's degree in Ceramic Science Alfred University and earned two mater's degrees, Ceramic Science from Penn State and Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida. In 1976 she earned a PhD in Materials Science and Egineering from the University of Florida, Dr. Scripa was an active member of the Faculty Senate and from 1993 until 2000 she served as the faculty representative to the UAB athletics department. In 1992 she received the UAB Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching and in 2007 she was the recipient of the UAB Ellen Gregg Ingalls/National Alumni Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Teaching.  Dr. Scripa retired from UAB in 2015 and was named as a Distinguished Service Professor by the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System. 

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Martha Johnson, MFA

Martha had single-woman exhibitions mounted in Auburn, New York, and Birmingham, as well as at art museums in Florida, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Birmingham native Martha Johnson received an undergraduate degree in art from Auburn University and an M.F.A. from the Pratt Institute in New York. She returned to Birmingham and taught art classes at Samford University and at the Birmingham Art Museum. Johnson had single-woman exhibitions mounted in Auburn, New York, and Birmingham, as at art museums in Florida, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In 1968 she was hired on a part-time basis as one of the first two instructors for art classes in the College of General Studies. She became a full-time instructor at UAB in 1969 and soon became the faculty representative to the college for art. She became an assistant professor in 1971 and for the calendar year of 1973 she served as the acting chair for UAB’s newly organized Department of Art. Johnson left UAB in 1975. 

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Hejal C. Patel, MD 

In 1998 first-year medical student Hejal Patel was named to USA Today’s All-USA College Academic First Team, the first UAB student selected.  Patel received his BS from UAB in 1998 and his MD from UAB in 2002.  Dr. Patel completed an internship in Birmingham’s Carraway Methodist Hospital and a residency in radiation oncology, serving as chief resident, at the University of Louisville.  He was later the chief radiation oncologist for Baptist Health System in Pensacola, Florida, and is currently in the practice of GenesisCare in Dothan, Alabama.  He is certified by the American Board of Radiology.  Dr. Patel has an insight with his patients that many oncologist do not; at the age of 13 his right arm was amputated due to bone cancer.  His surgery was done at UAB and he underwent a chemotherapy regimen in his hometown of Auburn. 

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Delois Skipwith Guy, DSN, RN 

Delois Skipwith Guy is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  She earned a nursing diploma from the Grady Memorial Hospital nursing school in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1963.  She began her nursing career at Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa and later held nursing positions at Macon County Hospital in Tuskegee and at South Highlands Hospital in Birmingham.  She earned a BSN degree from Tuskegee University and an MSN from Indiana University.  In 1969 Guy became the first African American faculty member in the nursing school; she was also the first African American faculty member to be hired in a tenure-track position at UAB.  She earned her doctorate from the UAB nursing school in 1980.  Dr. Guy was a department head of undergraduate nursing from 1983 until 1995 and taught more than four decades in the School of Nursing.  She was appointed as the Alabama delegate to the White House Conference on Aging.  She was a member of the American Nurses’ Association, the National League for Nursing, and Sigma Theta Tau Honorary Society.  Following her retirement from UAB, Dr. Guy was named professor emerita and she became a member of the nursing national advisory council of the UAB School of Nursing.  In 2010 she was named a Visionary Leader by the UAB nursing school and in 2013 was inducted into the Alabama Nursing Hall of Fame. 

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Seymour S. West, PhD

Dr. West was internationally credited as having established the field of biophysical cytochemistry and for having developed microspectroflurophotometry for the study of living cells. 

Seymour S. West was born in New York City and served in the infantry of the U.S. Army during the Second World War. West received an undergraduate degree in Biology from Cornell University and a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the city College of New York. In 1963 he received a doctorate in biophysics and Anatomy from Case Western Reserve University until he came to Birmingham in 1966. Here he received the appointment as professor of Engineering biophysics, with joint appointments in the Anatomy aand in the Physiology and biophysics departments. Dr. West was chair of the Dpertment of Engineering biophysics from 1966 until 1978 and was then the director of the biophysics division in the School of Public Health umtil his death.