Arthur Uhimov
Arthur Uhimov is the Executive Director of Pre-Award and Strategic Research Development at Columbia University’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. In this role, Arthur is responsible for strategic planning, funding identification, proposal development, application submission, and pre-award management of all grants at the Zuckerman Institute, from individual trainee proposals (F and K awards) to large multidisciplinary grants with multiple principal investigators (U19s, P30s, P50s, S10s). Arthur started as the only member of the Pre-Award Team when the Zuckerman Institute first opened its doors, and under his expert leadership, the team has expanded to four members, manages submissions for over 50 institute investigator laboratories, and has doubled NIH funding for ZI.
Arthur is an expert in getting science funded. To optimize ZI’s research funding, he has developed and implemented novel approaches for supporting applicants. NIH grants are complex, and to make the process more transparent, Arthur generated comprehensive checklists for each of the common grants, collected a library of funded applications — each of which he helped get funded, and drafted templates of non-scientific sections for proposals (facilities and resources, budgets and budget justifications, administrative cores, multi-PI leadership plans). Most importantly, Arthur has not forgotten the personal component of scientific funding. He meets with each applicant individually to develop a tailored application strategy, and going above and beyond his job description, Arthur often provides perceptive career advice to trainees.
Prior to joining the Zuckerman Institute, Arthur was the Director of Research Administration in the Department of Dermatology at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center. He continues to support research on skin and hair regeneration by managing Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and providing research administration support for the startup Rapunzel Bioscience Inc.
Arthur has always been passionate about research. In his days as a scientific researcher, he developed a novel Drosophila courtship conditioning paradigm that established long-term memory lasting eight days and studied the function of CREB in courtship conditioning. He conducted research at Temple University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology, Brandeis University, and at Cold Spring Harbor Labs.
Currently, Arthur is a member of the National Organization of Research Development Professionals and the Society of Research Administrators International. He is certified in the Administration of Sponsored Projects (Columbia University), Management Development (Cornell University Industrial Labor Relations School), and Research Administration (Research Administrators Certification Council).
