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Gilbert V. Levin, Ph.D.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland,
Gilbert V. Levin graduated from
Forest Park High School and entered
the Johns Hopkins University School
of Engineering in 1941. In 1944,
during World War II, in his junior
year, he joined the U.S. Maritime
Service, where he trained as a
shipboard radio operator. After
serving on various merchant ships in
the Atlantic, North Atlantic,
Mediterranean, Pacific and Indian
Ocean combat zones, Levin left the
service in 1946. He returned to
Hopkins where he obtained his B.E.
in Civil Engineering in 1947 and his
M.S. in Sanitary Engineering in
1948. He then served as public
health engineer in the health
departments of Maryland, California
and the District of Columbia before
joining Dr. Louis McCabe, former
Director of the Los Angeles County
Air Pollution Control District, in
founding Resources Research Inc., an
environmental consulting and
research firm, in 1955. While still
working at the company, Levin went
back to Hopkins as a full-time
student and obtained his Ph.D. in
Environmental Engineering in 1963.
In 1967, following the sale of the
company, Levin founded Biospherics
Research Inc. (now Spherix Inc.),
where he was CEO and President until
2003, and served as Chairman of the
Board until 2007. He retired from
the Company in 2008. In 2007, he was
appointed Adjunct Professor in the
Beyond Center of the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences of the
Arizona State University. In 2011,
Dr. Levin was made Honorary
Professor in the Buckingham Centre
for Astrobiology of Buckingham
University in the UK.
Among Dr. Levin’s inventions are
low-calorie sweeteners, therapeutic
drugs, including one that passed
Phase 3 Clinical Trial for type 2
diabetes, several drug uses of the
rare sugar tagatose, radioisotope
methods for the rapid detection and
identification of microorganisms,
the application of the firefly
bioluminescent ATP assay to
microbial detection and to the
measurement of biomass,
safe-for-humans pesticides, and
wastewater treatment processes
including biological nutrient
removal, along with the associated
instrumentation and equipment. His
innovative approaches to detecting
microbial life led NASA to award him
a series of contracts to develop
methods for the detection of
extraterrestrial life in spacecraft
missions. Dr. Levin was appointed by
NASA to a committee to recommend
experiments for the Biosatellite
Mission. NASA also asked him to
serve on its Planetary Quarantine
Advisory Panel. He then became
Principal Investigator for a study
of NASA’s still-pending Mars Sample
Return Mission. Dr. Levin was a Team
Member on the Goddard Space Flight
Center’s IRIS Experiment flown
aboard Mars Mariner 9 in 1971 to
study the atmosphere of Mars. Based
on his sensitive radioisotope
microbial detection method, Dr.
Levin proposed to NASA and was
selected for the Viking Mission to
Mars. He was designated Experimenter
of the Viking Labeled Release life
detection experiment which landed on
Mars in 1976. The experiment got
positive responses at both Viking
landing sites. However, a consensus
did not accept his results as proof
of life. After years of study, in
1997 Dr. Levin concluded that the
experiment had, indeed, detected
life on the red planet, and
published his conclusion. Subsequent
findings of environmental conditions
on Mars and research on organisms
found in extreme environments on
Earth have been consistent with his
claim. Pursuing the life issue, Dr.
Levin was a member of the Scientific
Instrument Team for NASA’s
experiment on the ill-fated Russian
’96 Mars Mission. He has since
developed, proposed and published on
a Chiral LR life detection
experiment as a way to remove any
doubt about the original Mars LR
results. He has published over 150
papers in scientific and technology
journals, and has been awarded more
than 50 patents for his inventions.
A Trustee Emeritus of the Johns
Hopkins University, Dr. Levin is a
member of its National Engineering
Advisory Council, and has served on
its National Library and National
Industrial Advisory Councils. His
awards include the Distinguished
Alumnus Medal from Johns Hopkins,
the Public Service Medal from NASA,
the Newcomb-Cleveland Award from the
American Association for the
Advancement of Science and the
IR-100 Award from Industrial
Research Magazine. He is a Member of
the Sigma Xi, is listed in Who’s Who
in America, and is a member of the
Cosmos Club of Washington, DC.
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