Robert Henry Levi and Ryda Hecht Levi Professorship in Bioethics and Public Policy

ROBERT H. LEVI, A&S ‘36 (1915-1995), trustee of both the university and hospital, was a leader in fundraising at Hopkins beginning in the 1970s. He was described by former Hopkins President Milton S. Eisenhower as “one of the wisest men I have ever met.” RYDA H. LEVI was internationally known for her ongoing support of art and education. Mr. and Mrs. Levi donated the funds and art for the establishment of the Baltimore Museum of Art sculpture garden. In 1985, the west wing of Mudd Hall on the Homewood campus was dedicated to the Levi’s for their extraordinary devotion and generosity to the university. In 1997, two years after his death, the Robert H. Levi Leadership Program in Bioethics and Public Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bioethics Institute was established in Mr. Levi’s memory by the Hecht-Levi Foundation. The program includes a biannual symposium on pressing ethical issues in medicine and health policy.

The Levi Professorship will be held by a faculty member in the Bloomberg School of Public Health who serves on the core faculty of the Bioethics Institute, a joint initiative of the schools of Arts and Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health. The institute is dedicated to the study of complex moral and policy issues in biomedical science, health care, and health policy. Its mission is to educate leaders in bioethics; to promote research at the intersection of ethics, law, medicine and science; and to provide policy advice to the government and the private sector.

“He was interested in charting courses that considered the moral dimension as well as the practical.” Alexander H. Levi, son of Robert and Ryda and JHU Emeritus Trustee