Research Centers and Institutes
About This Page
This list of Research Centers and Institutes at the University of Memphis provides descriptions and links to active research centers on campus.
Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change
The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change promotes its mission of teaching, studying and promoting civil rights and social change primarily through teaching, research, innovative campaigns, and community engagement. For more than twenty years, the Hooks Institute has developed an impressive track record of educating, engaging, and empowering the community.
Breast Biomechanics Research Center
Established in 2022, the Breast Biomechanics Research Center (BBRC) within the College of Health Sciences has the overarching goal of enhancing women’s health through the application of the science of biomechanics. To achieve this goal, we perform foundational, translational and clinical research to support the development of breast-related practices and products that benefit breast health. Our research is multidisciplinary and integrates the sciences of anatomy, biomechanics, artificial intelligence and computer vision as well as computer, electrical and biomedical engineering. A secondary focus of the BBRC is to raise awareness of breast-related health issues including activity-induced breast pain, breast support sizing and support, and breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Building Resilience across Ages through Integrative Neuroscience (BRAIN)
The BRAIN Center at the University of Memphis is a transdisciplinary clinical and research collaborative with the aim of advancing evidence-based practice and policy through neuroscience-informed interventions. Our vision is to become an internationally recognized center of excellence for integrative clinical practice in the areas of adversity, resiliency, and wellness across the lifespan.
Bureau of Sport and Leisure Commerce
The Bureau of Sport and Leisure Commerce was selected by the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) to collect data on student attendance at college athletic events. The ongoing research is led by Cody T. Havard and Timothy D. Ryan.
Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research (CAESER)
Simply put, CAESER builds smarter, stronger communities. We work with local, regional, and international communities; with particular focus on urban analytics, water resources, disaster resilience, GIS data, and education/outreach in these areas.
Center for Applied Psychological Research (CAPR)
Founded in 1984, CAPR is one of the original Tennessee Centers of Excellence. In 1988 the Center was designated as an Accomplished Center of Excellence in recognition of the consistently high quality research, teaching and service. CAPR's goals are to achieve national prominence in the application of psychological knowledge to individual and social problems, to increase the level of extramural funding of the Department of Psychology in order to facilitate research and training, and to increase the number of trained psychologists able to apply relevant knowledge to individual and social problems.
Center for Biodiversity Research(CBio)
CBio is dedicated to advancing our knowledge of biodiversity at all levels of organization, from the molecular building blocks of life, to the biosphere, as well as the relationships between humans and biodiversity. We seek to increase the volume, impact and visibility of research at the UofM by encouraging, enabling, and supporting collaborative biodiversity research and graduate student training. Our work falls into three broadly overlapping focal areas of biodiversity science: (1) ecology, evolution, and organismal biology, (2) genetics, genomics and bioinformatics, and (3) conservation, global change, education, agriculture and urban environments.
Center for Biofuel Energy and Sustainable Technologies (BEST)
The Center for Biofuel Energy and Sustainable Technologies (BEST) at The University of Memphis was established to formulate effective holistic responses to our national energy system challenges.
Center for Community Research and Evaluation (CCRE)
The University of Memphis has launched the Center for Community Research and Evaluation (CCRE), a social science research center in the College of Arts and Sciences. The mission of CCRE is to provide interdisciplinary social science research and evaluation support for community-based projects. CCRE's interdisciplinary team of social scientists leverages the power of data and scientific methodology to support important community projects. With years of experience in helping nonprofit and community-based organizations identify and convey the impact of their efforts, the team offers services covering every step of the formative and evaluative process, including proposal development, data strategy, collection, analysis, visualization and reporting.
Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI)
CERI is one of five Centers of Excellence at the University of Memphis. Faculty, researchers, students and staff dedicate their time and energy to understanding the causes and physical consequences of earthquakes; and their impact on society. CERI faculty and researchers focus on a wide variety of problems in geophysics, seismology, geodesy, exploration, geodynamics, source physics, and engineering seismology.
Center for Health Literacy and Health Communication
Under the direction of Dr. Joy Goldsmith and Dr. Sachiko Terui, Core Faculty, and an Advisory Board, the CHLHC is committed to developing health literacy and health communication interventions, resources, and networks for providers, patients, family caregivers, health systems, and community organizations. The CHLHC tests and pilots interdisciplinary communication interventions, disseminates communication approaches and tools, and researches outcomes associated with health literacy and health communication across health contexts and populations.
Center for Information Assurance
The Center for Information Assurance is a nationally designated Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education and Research. Their research focuses on negative authentication, adaption multi-factor authentication, smart-grid security, and game theory applications in cyber security.
Center for Innovative Research in Bridge Engineering (CIRBE)
The Center for Innovative Research in Bridge Engineering (CIRBE) addresses issues affecting the design, analysis, and operation of bridge structures. CIRBE’s mission is to conduct innovative and applied research to design resilient and long-lasting bridges.
Center for Nutraceutical and Dietary Supplement Research
The Center for Nutraceutical and Dietary Supplement Research (CNDSR) is housed within The School of Health Studies at The University of Memphis. The mission of the Center is to investigate botanical agents, dietary ingredients, and finished dietary supplements in terms of safety and efficacy, through the use of cell culture experiments, animal studies, and human clinical trials.
Center for Regional Economic Enrichment (CREE)
The University of Memphis Center for Regional Economic Enrichment (CREE) is focused on enhancing the educational, environmental and economic well-being of people and places of West Tennessee and the Delta. CREE's professional development courses and programs can help employees reach their career goals and encourage them to complete undergraduate or graduate degree programs regardless of their academic backgrounds. Below are the programs that CREE has created by partnering with the University of Memphis:
Center for Rehabilitation and Employment Research (CRER)
The Center for Rehabilitation and Employment Research conducts research, educates and trains job-seekers, and provides employment, career, and rehabilitation services geared towards enhancing employment and career development opportunities for individuals who have been chronically unemployed and underemployed. The Center's interdisciplinary research approach focuses on how social, psychological, organizational, cultural, economic, and medical factors impact the employment and career development of certain groups.
Center for Research in Educational Policy (CREP)
The Center for Research in Educational Policy (CREP) is a non-profit research center located at the University of Memphis (U of M) and is designated as a State of Tennessee (TN) Center of Excellence. CREP is committed to serving as a valuable resource in educational research, evaluation, and consultation, with extensive experience in research design, execution, and program implementation evaluation across the country, including K-12, higher education, museum, district, statewide, and multi-state programs. With experience conducting large-scale evaluations in 37 states, CREP strives to provide up-to-date, relevant data useful to both schools and policy makers through high-quality research, rigorous program evaluation, and published research and policy briefs following rigorous What Works Clearinghouse guidelines.
Center for Research Initiatives and Strategies for the Communicatively Impaired (CRISCI)
The Center for Research Initiatives and Strategies for the Communicatively Impaired (CRISCI) was established in 1984. The activities of the CRISCI encompass a wide range of research and services in communication disorders. From the outset, its principal goals have been to develop innovative clinical procedures for the communicatively impaired, create a model service delivery program for the Mid-South region, and establish an outstanding research program in communication disorders.
Center for Transportation Innovations, Education, and Research (C-TIER)
The vision of C-TIER is to embrace innovative, interdisciplinary research projects, train current and future transportation leaders and workforce, and engage with the industry to enhance collaborations between agencies by improving efficiency and safety, sustainability reduced traffic congestion, and developing standards to ensure interoperability today and in the future.
Chucalissa Museum and Indian Village
The C.H. Nash Museum was founded in 1956 following the 1930s rediscovery of a Mississippian mound complex by workers preparing for the Jim Crow era Shelby County Negro Park (now the T.O. Fuller State Park). The earthen mounds (still standing today) are believed to have been constructed and occupied between 1000-1500 AD by the people of the Mississippian culture who used platform mounds for ceremonies and residences of high-ranking officials within their culture. The site is now used as a laboratory for training archaeologists and as a place for the public to come and learn more about the remarkable science of archaeology.
Computational Research on Materials Institute at UofM (CROMIUM)
Computational Research on Materials Institute at University of Memphis (CROMIUM), established in 1998, fosters computational research, research training, and education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels across the university. The main role of CROMIUM is to actively encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers on and off campus. The shared resources provided by High Performance Computing (HPC) on campus serve as a vital nexus for advancing collaboration and reaching successful external funding outcomes.
Crews Center for Entrepreneurship
The Crews Center for Entrepreneurship encourages and supports a culture of entrepreneurship at the University of Memphis, helping faculty and student entrepreneurs as they focus their passions and commercialize their ideas, research, and inventions into the foundations of successful companies.
Ecological Research Center (ERC)
The Ecological Research Center serves as a research and advisory asset to the regional community. Ensuring ecologically sound planning and development within the urban environment is the most vital goal of the Center. The Center assists in the identification of ecologically related problems and avenues for resolution.
Edward J. Meeman Biological Station
The Edward J. Meeman Biological Station consists of two sites: The Meeman site (623 acres; 252 ha) and the Brunswick site (367 acres; 149 ha). Faculty from The University of Memphis and several other institutions in the Mid-South utilize the facility for research purposes. Ongoing research programs include river and wetland ecology, wildlife ecology, plant community ecology, population ecology, evolutionary ecology, ecological genetics, and others.
Healthy Eating Institute
The Healthy Eating Institute (HEI) is a College of Health Sciences and Campus Recreation initiative. The mission of the HEI is to educate the community on optimal nutrient intake to support health and performance, and to provide nutrient-dense meal options to promote healthy living. A secondary focus is to utilize the institute programs to further promote education and nutrition-related research efforts within the College of Health Sciences. Our goal is to educate our campus community and others throughout the Memphis area on the benefits of healthy eating, while providing the skills and knowledge to help people adopt a healthier lifestyle. We aim to do this through education, cooking classes, community outreach, food literacy programs for underserved communities, youth cooking/nutrition classes and more. With our focus on food sustainability, environmentally conscious nutrition and plant-forward eating, we offer programming in the Tiger Food Lab and healthy eating options at the Tiger Café, both within the R. Brad Martin Student Wellness Center.
Human Performance Center
The Human Performance Center provides elite science support to improve human performance by solving applied practical challenges. The strength of the Human Performance Center is the scientific background of the highly credentialed scientists involved, which when combined with the experiential knowledge of practitioners, becomes a unique resource to the University of Memphis.
Institute for Arts and Health
The Institute for Arts and Health aims to contribute to a more just and equitable society by facilitating opportunities for faculty, staff, graduate students, and community partners to share best practices and explore opportunities to develop and secure funding for transdisciplinary research projects, curricular developments, and to have a visible impact in the community broadly related to the arts and health. The newly inaugurated Institute is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion through its support of a wide range of projects and events. Current areas of focus include, but are not limited to, Health for the Arts, the Arts in Health, and Health, Well-being and the Built Environment. The Institutes welcomes expressions of interest from colleagues across the University of Memphis and from our broader local community.
Institute for Gambling Education and Research
The Institute of Gambling Education and Research (TIGER) is composed of the Gambling Clinic and the Gambling Lab. The Gambling Clinic treats individuals with gambling disorders, trains professionals and doctoral students, educates consumers, as well as develops tools to measure and intervene with excessive gambling behavior.
Institute for Intelligent Systems
The IIS is dedicated to advancing the state of knowledge and capabilities of intelligent systems, including psychological, biological, and artificial systems. By conducting cutting-edge research and publishing our findings in peer-reviewed venues, we contribute to the discipline and, ultimately, to the public. In doing so, we are also training the next generation of scientists.
Our mission depends on an interdisciplinary approach that brings together researchers from many different research areas in the cognitive sciences, including biology, communication sciences & disorders, computer science, education, engineering, linguistics, philosophy, physics, and psychology.
Institute for Interdisciplinary Memphis Partnerships to Advance Community Transformation Center
iIMPACT is an umbrella structure designed to transform community engagement and research within The University of Memphis. Our intent is that Institute for Interdisciplinary Memphis Partnerships to Advance Community Transformation (iIMPACT) serves as a catalyst for collaborative, cross-disciplinary prevention and mitigation of adverse childhood events (ACEs) and their effects.
Institute for Nanomaterials Development & Innovation at the University of Memphis (INDIUM)
INDIUM was established in 2004 to promote development and innovation in the research of nanomaterials. INDIUM's mission is to facilitate interdisciplinary research and education in nanoscale science and engineering at the University of Memphis and collaborating institutions and serve as a nanotechnology research and education hub for Southwest Tennessee and surrounding areas. INDIUM currently includes faculty members in chemistry, physics, biology, and biomedical engineering.
The Institute for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership (IPNL)
The Institute for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership (IPNL) promotes effective philanthropy, advances nonprofit leadership practice, and strengthens the nonprofit sector through education and research. Our vision is to serve as a portal for 1) nonprofits to access the expertise and opportunities at the University of Memphis, and 2) students and faculty to access the rich context available for engaged scholarship, service learning, and applied experiences.
Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology
The Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology (IEAA) is a Tennessee Center of Excellence. It is a component of the Department of Art at The University of Memphis. The IEAA is dedicated to the study of the art, history and culture of ancient Egypt through teaching, research, exhibition, and community education.
Institute for Public Service Reporting
The Institute for Public Service Reporting at The University of Memphis produces robust, independent investigative and enterprise reporting while also providing hands-on training to UofM students. The Institute aims to help fill gaps in coverage to promote investigative journalism and the free flow of information that is vital to democracy.
Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute (IFTI)
IFTI offers an administrative home for a wide range of multi-disciplinary research and curricular initiatives as well as public-private partnership endeavors collectively designed to provide national leadership on issues related to intermodal freight transportation. IFTI addresses critical issues affecting the planning, design and operation of the nation's intermodal freight transportation systems with an emphasis on the intermodal issues that have local significance with national and international implications.
Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities
Named in honor of one of the university's most beloved Professors of History, the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities (MOCH) leads and supports an array of initiatives aimed at broadening and deepening humanistic inquiry not only within the University of Memphis community but in the city of Memphis and the wider Mid-South region.
Center for Excellence in Mobile Sensor Data-to-Knowledge (MD2K)
MD2K is a consortium of 11 universities and university medical centers, headquartered at the University of Memphis. The 22 collaborating investigators collectively represent the best and brightest minds in data science, mobile sensing, and biomedical research. The center is organized into four operating cores (data science research, training, administration, and consortium) with data science research efforts structured into four primary thrust areas: Thrust 1, Mobile Sensor Data to Information (MD2I); Thrust 2, Mobile Sensor Information to Knowledge (MI2K); Thrust 3, MD2K-Implementation; and Thrust 4: MD2K-Application.
Methodist LeBonheur Center for Healthcare Economics
The Methodist Le Bonheur Center for Healthcare Economics (MLCHE) was established in March 2003 with a grant from Methodist Healthcare and Le Bonheur Systems, Inc. MLCHE focuses on issues of efficiency, effectiveness, and equity in healthcare through a variety of research, internship, instruction, and public service programs.
Public Safety Institute
The PSI is funded initially through the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, a private non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that serves as a leadership team for reducing crime in Memphis and Shelby County. The primary mission of the Crime Commission is to spearhead a plan (Operation: Safe Community) to significantly improve public safety in the Memphis area, galvanize diverse leaders and stakeholders in the implementation and support of the plan, and manage the hard work necessary to achieve implementation.
Robert Wang Center for International Business
The Robert Wang Center for International Business was established in 1987. As part of the Fogelman College at the University of Memphis, the Wang Center serves as a catalyst and a forum for ongoing analysis, training and discourse on the global economy and the challenges of global competition for American business and higher education.
SMART Research, Training & Treatment Center
Founded in June 2020 by Dr. Susan Elswick, the SMART Center provides a tele-behavioral health training and treatment program for the region to counteract the impacts that COVID-19 had on the mental health service delivery here. Our online clinic uses videoconferencing to provide evidence-based clinical interventions for children, youth and families across Tennessee.
The School Mental Health Access to Resources through Telehealth (SMART) for children and adolescents continues AND adding in Fall 2022 Supporting Mental Health Access to Resources through Telehealth (SMART) for adults aims to provide evidence-based interventions for individual (Fall 2022) and school based mental health programming, increase access for individuals and school-based behavioral health programming in underserved areas, provide training on best practices in tele-behavioral health, develop opportunities to research the use of technology in practice, and provide direct services to the states most vulnerable populations.
Systems Testing Excellence Program (STEP)
The Systems Testing Excellence Program (STEP) is a major interdisciplinary research initiative under the umbrella of the FedEx Institute of Technology with academic program support from the Fogelman College of Business and Economics. STEP focuses on testing research, providing a world class testing training and education center through quality industry certification training and academic curricula, and creating a hub for testing by providing an international forum for learning and dissemination of testing knowledge.
University of Memphis Institute on Disability
UMID is an entity with a focus on enhancement of the condition of persons with disabilities through the rigorous and comprehensive interdisciplinary exploration of new knowledge. It provides and promotes scholarly and community-based exploration of this knowledge by means of creative scholarly research, learner-based teaching, and constituent-based community service in the Memphis area and throughout the world.