Hershel Raff received his Ph.D. in Environmental Physiology from the Johns Hopkins University in 1981 and did postdoctoral training in Endocrinology at the University of California at San Francisco. He joined the faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1983, and rose to the rank of Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Clinical Nutrition) and Physiology in 1991. He is also Director of the Endocrine Research Laboratory at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center. At the Medical College of Wisconsin, he teaches physiology and pharmacology to medical and graduate students. He was an inaugural inductee into the Society of Teaching Scholars, received the Beckman Basic Science Teaching Award and the Outstanding Teacher Award, and has been one of the MCW’s Outstanding Medical Student Teachers each year the award has been given. Dr Raff was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society as a faculty teacher in 2005. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Marquette University. He is Associate Editor of Advances in Physiology Education. He was Secretary-Treasurer of the Endocrine Society and is currently Chair of the Publications Committee of the American Physiological Society. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2005. Dr. Raff ’s basic research focuses on the adaptation to low oxygen (hypoxia). His clinical interest focuses on pituitary and adrenal diseases, with a special focus on the diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome. Dr. Raff is also a co-author of Vander’s Human Physiology (McGraw-Hill) currently in its 12th Edition, and Physiology Secrets, currently in its 2nd Edition.
Michael Levitzky is Professor of Physiology and Anesthesiology at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and is Director of Basic Science Curriculum at the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. He received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969 and a Ph.D. in Physiology from Albany Medical College in 1975. He joined the faculty of the LSU School of Medicine in 1975, rising to the rank of Professor in 1985. He has also been Adjunct Professor of Physiology at Tulane University School of Medicine since 1991. Dr. Levitzky teaches physiology to medical students, residents, fellows, and graduate students. He has received numerous teaching awards from student organizations at both LSU and Tulane. He received the inaugural LSUHSC Allen A. Copping Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Basic Sciences in 1997 and the American Physiological Society’s Arthur C. Guyton Teacher of the Year Award in 1998. He was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society as a faculty teacher in 2006. Dr. Levitzky has served the American Physiological Society as a member of the Education Committee and as a member of the Steering Committee of the Teaching Section. He served as a member of the National Board of Medical Examiners United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 Physiology Test Material Development Committee from 2007-2011. He is the author or co-author of several other textbooks, one of which, Pulmonary Physiology (Lange/McGraw-Hill), is currently in its 7th edition.