UCSF Names Lium Assistant Vice Chancellor of Research

Erik Lium

Erik Lium, PhD, has been named assistant vice chancellor of research for UCSF’s Office of Sponsored Research, effective Nov. 1, 2009.

Lium is an accomplished leader and administrator with more than 10 years of experience in senior-level development and operational positions in commercial and academic organizations.

He currently serves as the director of the Industry Contracts Division and interim director of the Contracts and Grants Division of the UCSF Office of Sponsored Research, where he has implemented effective strategies and business process changes, improving efficiency and customer-service, according to Eugene Washington, MD, executive vice chancellor and provost who announced the appointment.

Lium’s “expertise includes enterprise and business development, contracts/grants administration, process engineering and automation, policy development and team development/human resources,” Washington said. “He is a strategic and innovative leader, and will play a key role in research administration and the growth of the UCSF research enterprise.”

As assistant vice chancellor of research, Lium is charged with directing a full-service, faculty-oriented, customer centered research administration office that will include the management of several key administrative and regulatory compliance units/divisions that support the research function. These units/divisions include: Contracts and Grants and Industry Contracts Divisions, Office of Human Research Protection Program, Office of Institutional Animal Care and Use Program, Conflict of Interest, Technical Research Committees, Training and Communications, and the Business Research Unit in the School of Medicine. 

In addition, Lium will serve as co-director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s Regulatory Compliance Unit, and will be part of an executive management team charged with supporting the research mission of UCSF and providing high quality services to UCSF faculty.

“Lium is assuming this key leadership role at a critical time for research administration, particularly with respect to federal funding in an increasingly complex regulatory and compliance environment,” Washington noted. “I believe his demonstrated abilities and commitment to UCSF will ensure the continued success of our research enterprise.”

Lium earned a PhD in Cellular, Molecular, and Biophysical Studies from Columbia University in 1997, and served as a postdoctoral research scientist in the G.W. Hooper Foundation. Lium also served as president of a life science information services company acquired in 2004. Lium returned to UCSF in 2005 as the director of Business Development for the UCSF Diabetes Center and Immune Tolerance Network (ITN).