Page 3 - September2019
P. 3

Senior in Action:
          Senior in Action:                      Dr. Mark Kingston Levin
          Senior in Action:
           Senior in Action:
          Senior in Action:
                                                 Dr. Mark Kingston Levin
                                                 Dr. Mark Kingston Levin
                                                 Dr. Mark Kingston Levin
                                                 Dr. Mark Kingston Levin
        By Marilee Marrero Stefenhagen        mastered the Japanese language.  After  future than their ancestors.  I think this will
        Dr. Mark Kingston Levin               returning from Japan, Dr.           continue.  We’ll have challenges in the future.
        (Material provided by Dr. Kingston    Levin founded a company to provide  But I believe AIs, whose intelligence and
      Levin via his website,  https://        expert witness and forensic consulting.  capacities will be greater than our own, will
      markkingstonlevin.com and phone          Dr. Levin retired in 2014 to write  emerge as essential contributors to our brighter
      interview with Marilee Marrero          science fiction - his true calling.  In his  tomorrows.”  The trilogy consists of 30 th
                                               th
      Stefenhagen)                            30  Century Science Fiction Trilogy,  Century: Escape (c 2017), 30  Century:
                                                                                                        th
        Dr. Levin was born in 1941 and grew up                                    Revived (c 2018), and 30  Century: Contact
                                                                                                     th
      in Vermont with many winters in Florida                                     (c 2019).
      as a child. His father, a surgeon wounded                                    These days, Dr. Levin is hoping that
      during World War II while operating on                                      modern science might save his life.  After a
      frontline soldiers, and his mother, a speech                                ten-year battle, Levin beat two incurable
      therapist, poet and writer, had tremendous                                  and untreatable lymphocytic (LGL)
      influence on the development of Mark and                                    leukemias with the help of Dr. Catriona
      his older brother Mike. As a teenager, Mark                                 Jamieson at UC San Diego, and a new drug
      wrote poetry (published), short stories,                                    called Imbruvica.  Neither chemotherapy
      served as a lifeguard and played football.                                  nor other available drugs worked until
      His brother Mike became a General in the                                    Imbruvica was approved in December
      Army National Guard.                                                        2014.  Levin underwent treatment with
        In 1964, Levin received a BS in chemistry                                 Imbruvica and by April 2017, Dr. Jamieson  humans.  You can find Dr. Levin’s
      from the University of Vermont. He was  the author proposes, “What if the   could not find any cancer in his body.  In  blogs on his website, https://
      employed by Boeing on project Apollo and  superior intellectual and other abilities of  2012, Dr. Levin contracted Wolhdenstrom’s  markkingstonlevin.com  His books are
      later worked on the Mars Project.  In 1968,  AIs (Artificial Intelligences) could be  Syndrome, a b-cell lymphoma, and was in  available for purchase on Amazon.
      he decided to return to school to study  harnessed to save humanity and one AI  remission for two years.    Dr. Levin is now
      under Nobel Laureate Paul Dirac in      programmed to be a bridge to first contact  ready to fight the lymphoma with NAD  What are your opinions and
      quantum mechanics at the University of  with an alien species?  I love AIs, and I look  (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), once  thoughts surrounding artificial
      Miami, Coral Gables; obtaining his Ph.D. in  at their development as very positive.  For  efficacy trials have been completed with  intelligence?  Bring that question
      2.5 years.  Dr. Dirac and Mark Levin often  generations, humans have had a better                                   to your next discussion group.
      went sailing together in Key Biscayne Bay,
      Florida.
        Levin purchased a yacht to live on during
      his Ph.D. studies. He explored the
      Bahamian Blue holes and discovered deep
      caverns with stalagmites and stalactites.
      Jacque Cousteau was impressed and made
      it the subject of a documentary. During the
      yacht’s maiden voyage, one passenger went
      below and was poisoned by carbon
      monoxide (CO).  This tragedy led Dr. Levin
      to seek a method to detect carbon
      monoxide leaks. Years later in 1989, Dr.
      Levin invented the biomimetic carbon
      monoxide sensor. His company developed,
      manufactured and sold over 31 million CO
      sensors in the USA.
        Dr. Levin’s first business focused on
      airplane oceanography, remote sensing and
      flying into hurricanes.  He invented several
      sensor products, which were used for
      research and anti-submarine warfare. He
      devised an instrument to detect submarines
      under the ice, and a sensor that helped
      NASA determine where water might exist
      on Mars. Over the years, the two companies
      he founded were awarded over 32 U.S.
      patents. Levin served on a team of science
      advisors to U.S. President Gerald Ford.  He
      went to Japan and served as Senior
      Technical Advisor for the largest Japanese
      engineering and construction company. He
      married his third wife, Kyoko and

      September 2019                                                                                                                                     3
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8