| Alma Mater: | Antioch College, Cornell University |
| Known For: | Animal sexual behaviour |
Rachel N. Levin (born 1953 or 1954)[1] is an American neurobiologist and ornithologist who studies animal sexual behavior.[2] She is the William A. Hilton Professor of Zoology at Pomona College in Claremont, California.[3]
Levin studied biology and psychology at Antioch College, and then obtained a doctoral degree in neurobiology and behavior from Cornell University.[4] She switched from studying communication among chimpanzees to birds because the chimpanzees kept finding and taking apart the devices she used to record and make vocalizations.[5]
Levin did postdoctoral research at the University of Washington and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama beginning in 1982,[6] where she observed the bay wren and pioneered the study of bird song duets.
She began teaching at Pomona College in 1991.
She became interested in transgender identity after a former student introduced her to the field, and she became frustrated by its outdated perspective.
In 2024, she was promoted to an endowed chair.