Gilbert Victor Levin (April 23, 1924 – July 26, 2021) was an American engineer, the founder of Biospherics and the principal investigator of the Viking mission Labeled Release experiment.
[2] In 1997, Levin published his conclusion that a 1976 Viking lander had discovered living microorganisms on Mars.
On April 12, 2012, an international team including Levin reported their analysis "support the interpretation that the Viking LR experiment did detect extant microbial life on Mars."
The team used cluster analysis of the Labeled Release experiments of the Viking program.
[9] Levin died in Bethesda, Maryland after an aortic dissection on July 26, 2021, at the age of 97.