About
BENJAMIN D. LEVINE M.D. is the founder and
Director of the Institute for Exercise and
Environmental Medicine (IEEM) at Texas Health
Presbyterian Hospital Dallas where he also
holds the S. Finley Ewing Chair for Wellness
and the Harry S. Moss Heart Chair for
Cardiovascular Research. He is Professor of
Internal Medicine/Cardiology and Distinguished
Professor of Exercise Sciences at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center. Dr. Levine earned his B.A. magna
cum laude in human biology from Brown
University and his M.D. from Harvard Medical
School. He completed his internship and
residency in internal medicine at Stanford
University Medical Center followed by a
cardiology fellowship at UT Southwestern where
he trained under the renowned cardiovascular
physiologists Gunnar Blomqivst, M.D. and Jere
Mitchell, M.D. Dr. Levine founded the
IEEM in 1992 which has become one of the
premier laboratories in the world for the
study of human clinical and integrative
physiology. His global research
interests center on the adaptive capacity of
the circulation in response to exercise
training, deconditioning, aging, and
environmental stimuli such as spaceflight and
high altitude. A Henry Luce Foundation
and Fulbright Scholar, he received the Peter
van Handel Award from the US Olympic Committee
(for outstanding research), the Research Award
from the Wilderness Medical Society, the Honor
Award from the Texas Chapter of ACSM, the
Citation Award from the National ACSM for his
body of work, and the Distinguished Scientist
Award by the ACC. A consummate clinician
and teacher as well as a scholar, he was
elected to the Association of University
Cardiologists, received the Michael J. Joyner
International Teaching Award from the Danish
Cardiovascular Research Academy, and has been
selected as one of the “Best Doctors” for
cardiovascular medicine in Dallas and America
by his peers. Dr. Levine is a renowned
sports cardiologist who sees athletes with
cardiovascular medical problems from around
the world and serves as a consultant to the
NCAA, the NHL, the NFL, the USOC, USA Track
and Field, and other athletic organizations.
He has been a key contributor to the
guidelines for the management of athletes with
heart disease since 1994. Dr. Levine also has
a unique background in space medicine, serving
as a co-investigator on 4 Spacelab missions
(SLS-1, SLS-2, D-2 and Neurolab), the MIR
space station, and most recently, awarded the
2021 Scientific Achievement award by the
Aerospace Medicine Association a section of
the Space Medicine Association. He has a long,
sustained track record of funding by the NIH,
NASA and the National Space Biomedical
Research Institute (NSBRI), for which he was
the Team Leader of the Cardiovascular Section
from 2007 to 2017 advising NASA’s flight
surgeons on cardiovascular medical issues. His
work with astronauts has translated into one
of his other areas of clinical expertise,
namely patients with syncope (fainting) and
orthostatic intolerance (the inability to
stand up and withstand the effects of gravity
on Earth. Dr. Levine is currently the director
of a Program Project grant that explores the
“Mechanisms of Exercise Intolerance in Heart
Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction:
Precision Therapy Based on Patient Specific
Pathophysiology”. Dr. Levine has published 497
peer-reviewed journal articles, reviews, book
chapters, and technical papers, and is
currently serving on the editorial boards of
numerous journals, Dr Levine is a fellow of
the American Heart Association for which he is
the immediate past chair of the Exercise and
Cardiac Rehabilitation Committee, American
College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the
Cardiovascular Section of the American
Physiological Society and the American College
of Cardiology, former VP and member Board of
Trustees of ACSM, a member of the Board of
Directors of the American Autonomic Society,
elected member of the Association of
University Cardiologists, and elected member
of the prestigious medical society the
Association of American Physicians.
