Research Centers & Institutes

Whether your work is in wind tunnels, wetlands, or countless other fields, you have a chance to make your mark on the world at the University of Mississippi’s 50+ research centers and institutes.

researchers examining a specimen

Research at Ole Miss

Ole Miss' designation as an R1-classified research institution draws world-class faculty to carry out groundbreaking work. Every year, our researchers bring in millions of dollars in grants from public and private sources while also working directly with industry partners to overcome real-world challenges.

Research Across Any Topic

Research at Ole Miss covers almost every aspect of academic life here, including the arts, humanities, mathematics, and the sciences. 

  • Build a better early-warning system for oncoming tornadoes using sound waves
  • Develop drug-delivery methods that go beyond pills and injections
  • Reduce pollution and improve crop yields through runoff management
  • Break the cycle of addiction among college students

 

Research Support Facilities

Research takes a team. Our research support facilities provide the infrastructure and resources needed to make discoveries and launch new enterprises.

Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research

The Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research (MCSR) provides computing resources, training, and support for faculty, staff, and students at all of Mississippi’s public Institutions of Higher Learning.

Social Science Research Laboratory

We conduct social science research on issues of state, national, and international importance that affect the citizens of Mississippi.

Field Station

The mission of the University of Mississippi Field Station is to foster ecosystem stewardship by providing a natural laboratory and infrastructure for research, education and service, and by cultivating scientific information and understanding of upland watersheds in the lower Mississippi River Basin and similar habitats.

Research Centers

The University of Mississippi houses over 50 research centers where our scholars and researchers innovate and collaborate on different areas of studies. Explore our research centers.

Since 1965, the center has been a leader in the scholarship and practice of air, drone, and space law. Our faculty develop the legal foundation to bridge humanity’s evolution from a terrestrial to a spacefaring species.

Center for Air and Space Law

The CAR conducts grant-funded research on archaeological sites in Mississippi and elsewhere, training undergraduate and graduate students on field methods. Projects range from small surveys to major excavations.

Center for Archaeological Research

Here, Ole Miss faculty explore topics related to biological diversity, ecological services, and functional ecological landscapes. We connect scientists with funding opportunities and serve as a point of contact for granting agencies.

Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Research

With a special focus on the memory of the Civil War, the center promotes a more thorough understanding of the American Civil War, its history, and its scholarship.

Center for Civil War Research

The center works with the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy and UMMC to turn research discoveries into clinically validated therapies.

Center for Clinical and Translational Science

The center forges partnerships between Ole Miss faculty, staff, and students and area organizations and individuals, creating opportunities for leadership and growth.

Center for Community Engagement

CD3B connects science, medicine, and engineering to advance the development of modern medical technology and services, as well as new surgical approaches and practices.

Center for Diagnostics, Design, Devices, and Biomechanics

CESEE educates the public, policymakers, teachers, and educators about economic theory and policy. Center faculty analyze policies that are important to Mississippians and help the public use economic tools to understand the world.

Center for Economic Science and Economic Education

CELI prepares reading and literacy instructors to teach reading to all children, especially children in Mississippi who live in low socioeconomic-status school districts.

Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction

The center, established in 2007, gives Ole Miss faculty the tools and skills to become better teachers. It serves all teaching faculty at the university, providing a forum to discuss research and bring new practices into the classroom.

Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

CGRI works with university-based researchers to develop commercial uses for graphene, a strong, flexible material with applications in fields including electronics, medicine, and roads and bridges.

Center for Graphene Research and Innovation

A partnership between the School of Applied Sciences and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, the CHSP serves the Ole Miss campus and community through nutrition services, concussion testing, strength and conditioning camps, and more.

Center for Health and Sports Performance

CIE gives University of Mississippi students the knowledge, skills, and experience to become successful entrepreneurs who launch innovative companies. Since 2018, the CIE has assisted in the creation of more than 60 student ventures.

Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

CISS prepares students for careers in national security. Alumni of this program designated an Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence, find jobs with the government, think tanks, NGOs, and other organizations.

Center for Intelligence and Security Studies

The CMRET is the offshore branch of MMRI. It was was established by Congress in 1988 as part of the Mineral Institutes Program as The Marine Mineral Technology Center, and it was reauthorized under the Marine Minerals Resources Research Act of 1996 as CMRET.  It is administrated by the BOEM (former MMS). The primary objective of the CMRET is to investigate and to asses mineral resources within the US Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) including rigorous study of the seafloor ecological conditions.

CMRET fosters the development of selected mineral material from US seabed by providing opportunities for appropriate engineering system research, development, and technology transfer within academic, government and industrial community. The Center also provides leadership and facilities for education and training of the nation’s scientists and engineers in the field of ocean mineral development.

The CMSE improves mathematics and science education throughout Mississippi by connecting K-12 students and teachers with the Ole Miss community. We promote new teaching methods in the classroom and inspire students to enter STEM fields.

Center for Mathematics and Science Education

Created in response to the 2015 discovery of gravitational waves, the center gives UM researchers an opportunity to play a role in this emerging field.

Center for Multi-messenger Astrophysics

CPMM works closely with the Department of Pharmacy Administration to promote efficient and effective marketing and management of products and services in the health care and pharmaceutical industries.

Center for Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management

CPS educates, conducts research, and engages in public outreach on population issues. Our work touches on health care, hunger, safe drinking water, and other issues.

Center for Population Studies

The center, established in 2022, aims to promote civil discourse and provide pragmatic solutions to real-world policy problems. Center staff use the concepts and tools central to the discipline of ethics to bring about these outcomes.

Center for Practical Ethics

The center works with mission-driven organizations to help them measure and maximize the effectiveness of their work.

Center for Research Evaluation

This arm of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders assesses and treats individuals with communicative disorders; provides clinical training for graduate students in speech-language pathology; and advocates for the rights of individuals with communication disorders and their families.

Center for Speech and Hearing Research

The center, the first regional studies center in the country, investigates documents, interprets, and teaches about the American South through academic inquiry and publications, documentary studies of film, photography, oral history, and public outreach.

Center for the Study of Southern Culture

Housed at the 740-acre University of Mississippi Field Station, the center conducts aquatic, wetlands, and terrestrial research. It promotes a deeper understanding of upland watersheds in the lower Mississippi River Basin and similar habitats

Center for Water and Wetland Resources

 Led by researchers from the UM Department of Psychology, the center seeks to understand how individuals cope with and overcome natural and manmade disasters.

Clinical-Disaster Research Center

CREW empowers Mississippi communities to withstand natural, economic, and social disasters by addressing social, educational, and economic inequalities. Projects touch on food systems, parent engagement, and education.

Community First Research Center for Wellbeing and Creative Achievement

The center explores and questions the fundamental principles of American freedom. Researchers study the tenets of free societies, laws and legal systems, economic systems, and more.

Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom

To bolster child development and early education, the center conducts vital research and provides leadership in the field, informing policymakers about the impact of their decisions.

Graduate Center for the Study of Early Learning

The Grisham-McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement advances transformative service throughout the University and fights poverty through education in Mississippi.

Grisham-McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement

The center, which includes a 12,000-square-foot manufacturing floor, trains future industry leaders. Industry partners provide insight and training opportunities for students.

Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence

The Barbour Center seeks to increase interest in and knowledge of American politics, especially campaigns and elections.

Haley Barbour Center for the Study of American Politics

The mission of MMRI remains to provide the public and private sectors the expertise needed to make responsible decisions regarding Mississippi’s and the nation’s natural resources and
environmental well-being.

Mississippi Mineral Resources Institute

Researchers at this 85,000-square-foot center study a variety of acoustics phenomena, from ultrasonic to infrasonic. Equipment at the facility includes an anechoic chamber, mach 5 wind tunnel, Faraday labs, and more.

National Center for Physical Acoustics

NCCHE research touches fields including watershed processes, channel network hydraulics, river morphology, flood analysis, dam break, sediment transport, water quality and pollutant transport, river training and restoration, and more.

National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering

This center, based within the School of Pharmacy, conducts research, data analysis, education, and training on the health effects of cannabis.

National Center for Cannabis Research and Education

NCNPR, based within the School of Pharmacy, collaborates with a range of academic, government, and industry partners to create natural products used to improve human health and agriculture.

National Center for Natural Products Research

The center provides legal scholarship and outreach related to coastal and ocean law issues and works closely with partners in the nationwide Sea Grant network.

National Sea Grant Law Center

This archive, created in 1987, holds many of the research materials used by P.K. Seidman when he co-authored Legislative History of the Income Tax. Scholars throughout the world reference this archive.

National Tax History Research Center

The Overby Center, named for a former editor of the Daily Mississippian and the former CEO of the Freedom Forum and Newseum, advances journalism standards, supports First Amendment principles, educates about the role of a free press in a democracy, and encourages civilized discussion about politics and the media.

Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics

The Pii Center conducts interdisciplinary drug and polymer research that provides end-stage pharmaceutical products directed at therapeutic conditions, vaccines, antidotes, and wound care.

Pii Center for Pharmaceutical Technology

This center, named for the first female faculty member at UM, educates about issues of gender and sexuality, promotes interdisciplinary research, and advocates for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies

The UM Geoinformatics Center (UMGC) has been advancing geospatial technology through education, research, and infrastructure development since 1999. It's a prominent multidisciplinary center in Mississippi, contributing to geospatial science and remote sensing, addressing critical issues at local, state, and national levels.

The Magee Institute works to prevent or break the cycle of unhealthy habits and addictions some college students develop when trying to manage their stressors.

William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing