Dr. Levenson’s background combines medical training and optical-based instrumentation development in the commercial sector. He obtained his MD degree at the University of Michigan and did a residency in anatomic pathology at Washington University. A faculty position at Duke was succeeded by a CMU appointment to develop multispectral imaging approaches. In 2000, he entered the private sector to join CRI (now part of Akoya Biosciences) where he became VP of Research, served as PI on federally funded projects to develop multispectral microscopy systems and software, three-dimensional small-animal imaging, optical dynamic contrast techniques, and birefringence microscopy. From 2009-2012, he worked as a consultant in areas such as quantitative pathology, optical brain thermometry, intraoperative surgical guidance, pharmaceutical and medical device development.

In 2012 he joined UC Davis in the Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. While at UCD, he has worked on varieties of pathology-relevant imaging approaches, including secondary ion mass spectrometry for high-level molecular multiplexing, slide-free direct tissue-to digital histology using both UV- and visible light-based methods, and novel approaches to imaging standard histology slides to provide information typically accessible only via special stains. Dr. Levenson was named the Chancellor’s Innovator of the Year 2018 at UC Davis and was awarded first prize, Technology Division (C3 Award for advances in cancer management), in an international contest sponsored by Astellas. Regrettably, he also trained pigeons to recognize cancer in pathology and radiology images.