Dear USC Research Community,
I am very pleased to convey that, after a USC-wide search, Dr. Steven O. Moldin has been appointed as Associate Vice President, Research Strategy and Innovation (AVP-RSI) within USC’s Office of Research & Innovation (OORI). He also has a voluntary faculty appointment as Adjunct Research Professor of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Dr. Moldin’s tenure at USC has spanned nearly two decades. Joining USC in 2006 as the inaugural executive director of the Office of Research Advancement based in Washington, D.C., Dr. Moldin and his team facilitated the submission of over 1,000 proposals to federal funding agencies, of which over 300 were successfully funded for nearly $1 billion. For the last year, he served as interim AVP-RSI and oversaw the re-imaging of OORI’s internal funding program and the Alfred E. Mann Institute, as well as the successful recruitment of a new executive director for the USC Stevens Center for Innovation.
Dr. Moldin’s career and accomplishments in academia and research go beyond his time at USC. He holds a B.A. in Psychology (Magna Cum Laude with Distinction and Phi Beta Kappa) from Boston University, an M.A. in Psychology from Yeshiva University, and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Yeshiva University. He conducted research at New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, completed a clinical internship at Hillside Hospital / Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and completed both a postdoctoral fellowship in human genetics and assumed a tenure-track faculty position in the Department of Psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In 1995, Dr. Moldin joined the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), one of the National Institutes of Health, where he led the Office of Human Genetics and Genomic Resources and served as associate director of the Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science. Dr. Moldin was responsible for the fiscal and scientific management of an annual portfolio of over $200 million in extramural funding.
As AVP-RSI, Dr. Moldin will be responsible for managing the strategic development and alignment of internal funding programs and all scientific incubator, commercialization, and technology transfer activities. Dr. Moldin will be the primary driver of the strategic development of USC’s growing sponsored research enterprise, setting the stage for the continued innovative contributions of the university at a local, state, and national level. Dr. Moldin also will play a critical strategic role in developing and advancing USC’s research and commercialization activities.
I would like to extend my gratitude to the search committee for their time, effort, and dedication throughout the selection process. Your effort in finding the right candidate is truly appreciated.
Please join me in extending Dr. Moldin a warm Trojan family welcome as he assumes his new position!
Sincerely,
Ishwar K. Puri
SVP, Research & Innovation