Dr. Levitt is the Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Chief Scientific Officer of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Levitt received his B.A. in Biology at the University of Chicago, a PhD in Neuroscience at University of California, San Diego, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University.
Dr. Levitt’s research program includes basic studies that probe the ways in which circuitries develop that control learning, emotional and social behavior, using advanced technologies in genetics, cell biology, and behavior. Dr. Levitt’s studies on infant resilience to adversity focus on brain-based and metabolic changes that may impact mental and physical health in the short- and long-term.
Dr. Levitt has been a National Institute of Mental Health MERIT awardee, McKnight awardee, and has served as a member of the National Advisory Mental Health Council for the National Institute of Mental Health. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University, and serves as Scientific Director of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.