Though Levin, who earned a medical degree from University of Illinois College of Medicine, continues to consult for NCI -- where he's been involved in the long-term Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (the PLCO study) -- he has found more time in retirement to travel and indulge his other, nonscientific interests.

But Levin didn't wait for retirement to throw himself into his hobbies. "I've been combining science and theater all my life," says Levin, who these days is serving his third year as president of Rockville Little Theater and is directing its production of I Remember Mama, set to open this week at the theater's primary venue, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theater in Rockville.

He grew up in Chicago in a Conservative Jewish family "that sang all the time," says Levin, who was encouraged by his parents, both pharmacists (his mom was the first woman pharmacist in Chicago), to take piano lessons (his choice). As a boy, his yen to perform also found an outlet in the magic shows he and his identical twin brother, Marvin, put on.

Much later, as a premed student at the University of Illinois, Urbana, Levin majored in zoology; as a graduate student at U.I., he had a joint appointment in zoology, as well as speech and theater. He aimed for a medical career, but studied theater arts just because "I enjoyed it," says Levin, who was active in his university's theater group.

But, he never aspired to be centerstage: not in the theater arts, nor in the surgical theater.

"My theater interests were always backstage," says Levin, leading him to become stage manager for his university theater in his senior year, tinkering with lighting, sound and other production elements. Careerwise, too, "I always wanted to be in medicine, but not in a clinical practice."

Though he'd once planned to go into ophthalmology -- the branch of medicine that deals with the diseases of the eyes and visual pathways -- Levin early on developed expertise in computer programming, at a time, he notes, when computer science studies were very new at colleges. Later, he earned a master's degree in biostatistics from Georgetown University. His medical expertise, combined with his knowledge of computer programming and statistics, gave him "unique skills as a physician," he says, "who knew how to program," as well as how to analyze data.

Thus, when he moved to Greater Washington in 1969 to work for the U.S. Public Health Service at NCI, "what was supposed to be two years [at NCI] turned into 30 years," he says, noting that over the span of his career, he's worked with world experts in all areas of cancer epidemiology, yet his skill set allowed him to bridge communication divides among physicians, laboratory personnel, statisticians, computer programmers, data analysts and others in collaborative efforts.

These days, Levin brings many of those same skills to bear in his theater work, where he uses his computer -- and Legos -- to design and build set pieces for Rockville Little Theater that his wife of 45 years, Fran, transforms into painted scenery. Sometimes, Levin's other hobbies, including copper enameling, macrame and crocheting, also come in handy, such as when he recently had to teach one of his actors to crochet, as necessary for her role.

Levin also still loves to sing -- as "a baritone," he and his wife also perform with the Jewish choir Kolot HaLev, now gearing up for a concert next month at Temple Emanuel in Kensington. -- Jacqueline Sternberg

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Name: David Levin

Hebrew name: Dovid

Birthday: Feb. 20, 1942

Lives in: Potomac

Synagogue: Shirat HaNefesh

Favorite Jewish holiday: Chanukah

Favorite Jewish food: matzah balls

Favorite Jewish celebrity: Theodore Bikel