Early history The genesis for a publicly funded institution of higher education in
Huntsville was years in the making. Beginning in January 1950 as an extension of the
University of Alabama and known as the University of Alabama Huntsville Center, classes were first taught at West Huntsville High School. However, the university's direction changed in 1961, when
Wernher von Braun, a German rocket scientist brought to the United States under
Operation Paperclip after working for the
Nazi regime, helped create a research institute to provide advanced engineering and science curricula to NASA scientists and engineers. This institute was built off of
US 72, shortly thereafter renamed
University Drive. Throughout the years, the campus expanded south along
Sparkman Drive to reach
Interstate 565.
Autonomy UAH's first undergraduate degrees were awarded in May 1968 as part of the spring commencement ceremony at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, (although a "cap and gown" ceremony was held in Huntsville). One year later, the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees voted to make UAH an independent and autonomous campus. Benjamin Graves, a 1942 graduate of the
University of Mississippi and president of
Millsaps College in
Jackson, Mississippi, was tapped as UAH's first president in 1970. He returned to faculty status in 1979 and retired in 1989. The first degree awarded for work completed entirely on the UAH campus was awarded to Julian Palmore in 1964. Mr. Palmore was at the time a
United States Navy ensign assigned to
NASA's Research Projects Division. The first official on-campus graduation ceremony at UAH was in June 1970. The first woman to earn a Ph.D. from UAH was Virginia Kobler in 1979, in
Industrial Engineering. UAH's second president, John Wright, former Vice
Chancellor of the
West Virginia University, served from 1979 to 1988. UAH's third president was Louis Padulo, former Stanford professor and dean of engineering of Boston University. Huntsville leader Joseph Moquin took over the UAH presidency on an interim basis in 1990. Frank Franz, who was then
provost at
West Virginia University, was chosen as UAH's fourth president. His wife, Judy Franz, accompanied him and was granted full professorship in the physics faculty. Her renown in the scientific community was reaffirmed when she was named executive officer of the
American Physical Society in 1994.
2000s to present At the beginning of the 2006–2007 academic year, Franz announced his plan to step down as president after that year. On July 1, 2007, 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.
Robert Altenkirch was hired as the university's sixth president in September 2011. Altenkirch served as president of the
New Jersey Institute of Technology for nine years before joining UAH. In 2019, Darren Dawson, former dean of the College of Engineering at Kansas State University, became UAH's seventh president. Dawson announced his retirement in November 2021, and Charles L. Karr, former dean of the University of Alabama's College of Engineering, was named interim president, later officially named president in September 2022. In October 2025, Karr announced plans to retire in May 2026. As of November 2025, the search for the university's next president is currently underway.
Mass shooting The university briefly gained national attention in February 2010 when a
professor killed three people and wounded three others during a faculty meeting. ==Academics==