NYU star named McGill dean of medicine

Montreal, QC – Dr Richard Levin has been named vice-principal (health affairs) and dean of the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University. Currently the vice-dean for education, Faculty and Academic Affairs at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine, Dr Levin will take on his new position at McGill on September 1, 2006.

“McGill is one of the world’s great public research universities,” says Dr Levin. “It is also a leader in human genomics and proteomics, and, just as the 20th century was the century of physics, the 21st century will be the century of biological breakthrough,” he adds.

In his current role, Dr Levin is responsible for NYU’s distinguished clinical programs and all its educational programs, from the Salk School, a magnet school run jointly with the board of education of the city of New York, to its continuing medical education programs.

Dr Levin, who has practised and taught medicine for 25 years at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, the oldest public hospital in the United States, says he is also drawn by Canada’s health care system.

“I’m a strong believer that quality health care should be available to all,” he said. “Canada has, more successfully than most nations in the world, established a truly universal system from which other countries can learn. That is a real accomplishment.”