Mark W. Leitman

The author was born in New York in 1946 and attended Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, majoring in chemistry with a National Science Foundation research grant. He was the captain of the varsity wrestling team for two years and voted the outstanding wrestler. He then attended NY Medical College, where he was elected to AOA, the national medical honor society. The following three years of ophthalmology training were at Albert Einstein Medical School, where he served as chief resident and was the principal glaucoma research investigator, receiving a National Eye Institute grant of $600,000. During his first year of eye residency, he wrote the first edition of Manual for Eye Examination and Diagnosis, which, 45 years later, is now in its present 9th edition. It has been translated into Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, and Indonesian, with an Indian reprint. He also served as a captain in the US Army as a surgeon. His latest 2016 published research paper, Three new reflexes relating fear, disgust, breathing, swallowing, blinking, and orienting reflex (Biomarkers Journal, Vol. 2 No.2:17), shows the relationship between fear and concentration (learning) and disgust with learning disorders and asthma. He is presently an assistant clinical professor at Montefiore Hospital, Albert Einstein Medical School, and an attending physician at St. Peter's University Hospital. He practices in East Brunswick, NJ and his office was recently the subject of an article in the magazine, "Weird N.J." (Oct. 2015) and online at www.weirdnj.com.