Ira W. Levin received his B.S. from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. from Brown University. He had postdoctoral experience at the University of Washington, serving as a Research Instructor. He retired from the National Institutes of Health after a 48-year research career which included service as the Chief of the Section on Molecular Biophysics and Scientific Director of the Division of Intramural Research in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

His early research interests lay primarily in the applications of vibrational infrared and Raman spectroscopic techniques toward the elucidation of the conformational, dynamical, thermodynamic, and functional properties of both intact and model membrane assemblies and related systems. Later research was at the forefront of developing imaging analogues of molecular spectroscopic instrumentation, specifically, technologies and studies in spectroscopic FTIR and Raman microimaging. Imaging efforts also involved the translation of basic, bench laboratory research into a variety of clinical venues.

Dr. Levin has been honored with many awards including, the Bomem-Michelson Award and OSA’s Ellis R. Lippincott Award. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society's Biophysical Division and in its Division of Chemical Physics and is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. He has served on numerous boards and committees, in various leadership capacities in the spectroscopy community and at NIH, as well as having published extensively over the course of his career.