Irving Spitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.  He holds MD, PhD and DSc degrees from the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London.  He came to live in Israel in 1970, trained in Endocrinology at Hadassah University Hospital and then directed the Institute of Hormone Research at Shaare Zedek Medical Center.  He was at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD in 1980 and at the Population Council, Rockefeller University, New York from 1983-1995.  He is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York and Emeritus Professor of Endocrinology at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. 

A member of several scientific societies, he has authored some 250 scientific publications, lectured extensively throughout the world and consults for several international pharmaceutical companies. 

His eclectic range of interests includes music, art, history, travel, photography, archeol­ogy and cartography of the Holyland.  He often lectures on these topics and is the Music Editor of Education Update, a New York based publication.  He frequently contributes articles on music, art and travel to The Jerusalem Post.  Some of his essays and reviews can be seen at www.irvingspitz.com.  He blogs at www.educationupdate.com/irvingspitz and his photographs can be seen at www.pbase.com/irvspitz.  Irving and his wife Diane live in Jerusalem and have two married daughters and five grandchildren.