Lives of Consequence
Dr. Lowell J. Levine '59
Considered to be one of the country's top dental experts, Dr. Lowell J. Levine is the director of the New York State Police Medicolegal Investigations Unit and a forensic odontologist who has used his talent for dentistry as a forensic consultant, working on such legendary cases as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the identification of Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family. He testified in the case of serial killer Ted Bundy and identified the remains of Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor responsible for sending 400,000 people to Auschwitz.
After graduating from New York University's College of Dentistry in 1963, Levine served in the U. S. Naval Reserve spending two years on active duty. In 1965, after two years of active duty, he pursued private dental practice and was clinical associate professor at NYU's Dental College. In 1976, he became a clinical associate professor of behavioral sciences at NYU.
In 1985, he took a position as the coordinator of the Forensic Consultant Unit in the New York State Police Department (NYSPD). In 1986, he became a consultant in forensic odontology for the NYSPD and director of the Forensic Sciences Unit in Albany, N.Y. He retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1987.
In addition to training scientists in Indonesia, Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador and other countries for various governments and agencies, he has been published in many scientific papers and has lectured internationally.
He has been a consultant to the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii since 1986, helping to identify MIAs of all the U.S. wars. He has served as the president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the American Board of Forensic Ondontology, and the Forensic Sciences Foundation.
In 1992, he was the recipient of the Hobart College Medal of Excellence.