Dr. Michael S. Levine is currently Professor and Head of the Division of Genetics, Genomics, and Development at University of California, Berkeley, as well as the Co-director of Center for Integrative Genomics. He completed his undergraduate work at University of California, Berkeley, and received his Ph.D. from Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, Yale University in 1981. He served as Postdoctoral Fellow in Department of Cell Biology, Der Universität Basel, Switzerland under the supervision of Dr. W. Gehring and then in the Department of Biochemistry, University of California, Berkeley under Dr. G.M. Rubin. In 1984, he became Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, and was later appointed Associate Professor (1986) and Professor (1988) at the same institution. He moved to assume a Professorship in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego (1991) before taking up his current position at UC Berkeley. He also served briefly as Visiting Professor at the Zoological Institute, University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Dr. Levine was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998 and also serves as an editor for the journal Developmental Biology. His current research interest lies in the gene networks that control development and disease in animals.