Rich Levy was born and raised in New York City. In his twenties, he hitchhiked 30,000 miles in North America, and he also worked as a commercial halibut fisherman in Kodiak. After leaving the Gulf of Alaska, Rich enrolled in medical school at Boston University, and then he became board certified in both Internal Medicine and Radiation Oncology. He also earned a PhD in Biophysics from UC-Berkeley, where he received the Einstein Fellowship Award as Outstanding Graduate Student in Neuroscience Research. As a Medical Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Rich was an early pioneer in developing the field of “stereotactic radiosurgery” (neurosurgical treatment with radiation beams). He was also instrumental in correlating MRI and CT scans for more precise targeting of brain tumors, and in spearheading the use of focused beams of protons and of  heavier charged particles for medical treatment.

Rich’s other significant academic titles have included appointments as Assistant Adjunct Professor of Diagnostic Radiology at UC-San Francisco; Associate Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University Medical Center; and Full Professor of Radiation Medicine (Oncology) at Loma Linda University Medical Center. He’s been the Principal Investigator in multi-million dollar, medical-research grants from both the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.

Initially as a backpacker and later as a professional traveler, Rich has visited all 50 US states and been to every continent except Antarctica. Both he and his wife Donna have survived against all odds from several near-death experiences. Rich was rendered comatose for a few months by a car crash in 2004, and Donna was resuscitated from several suicide attempts that were triggered by major depression in 2008.

Living now in the picturesque town of Scottsdale, with Rich working full-time in Arizona as a Radiation Oncology physician, they’ve been married for more than forty years, enjoy their life together, and have three fine, young-adult children and (thus far) three grandchildren.