Levy to Chair Neurosurgery Department

A UB professor of neurosurgery, Levy begins in his new role this summer.

Levy is an accomplished neuro- and endovascular surgeon, clinical investigator and educator who focuses on neurovascular disease states, such as aneurysms and stroke.

Since he joined UB’s faculty in 2004, he has helped develop endovascular stroke care. He also pioneered a method for performing minimally invasive spinal surgery.

With investigators from the Toshiba Stroke Research Center, Levy and his team have studied flow dynamics and the biology of aneurysm formation and treatment options.

His clinical research focuses on quality outcomes following stroke intervention and the effectiveness of stroke imaging in predicting endovascular outcomes following treatment.

His broad research interests include drug-coated stents, treatment of acute stroke, stenting of aneurysms and the molecular biology of stent-induced restenosis.

He has served, and currently serves, as principal investigator on national and international stroke trials.

In 2011 Levy founded PUCCS, a national organization to boost research into youth concussions.

A fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, he is certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery.

He is a board member and co-founder of the Endovascular Neurosurgery Research Group and vice chair of the scientific planning committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

He co-directs the Kaleida Health Stroke Center and directs the Toshiba Neuroendovascular Catheterization Laboratory.

A graduate of Dartmouth College, Levy received his medical degree from George Washington University. He completed a surgical internship and his neurosurgical residency at the University of Pittsburgh.

In 2003, he completed a fellowship in endovascular surgery at UB.

Levy, who also serves as a professor of radiology at UB, recently earned an MBA from Northeastern University.

Levy has won numerous awards, including UB’s George Thorn Young Investigator Award, given to alumni younger than 40 in recognition of outstanding national or international contributions to their career field or academic area.

He has twice received the MDx Medical Patients’ Choice Recognition, an honor bestowed on only 5 percent of the nation’s physicians.

In 2009, Business First magazine named him one of Western New York’s top 50 doctors.

In his new role as chair, Levy succeeds his mentor, L. Nelson Hopkins, MD, one of the founding figures of endovascular treatment for neurovascular disorders.

Hopkins will continue as SUNY Distinguished Professor, president of Gates Vascular Institute and CEO of the Jacobs Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sparking medical collaboration and innovation among clinicians, academics, researchers, entrepreneurs and industry.