Robert Lufkin’s Twitter Presence Grows to Over 26,000 Followers as He Provides Key COVID-19 Updates

Robert Lufkin’s Twitter followers grows past 26,000 as he provides key updates to the COVID-19 situation.  Beginning in 2019 he was able to grow his Twitter audience from zero to >22,000 followers in about 180 days. The account at  https://twitter.com/robertlufkinmd  is described as ‘Med school professor exploring #COVID19, #artificialintelligence, #genetics, #consciousness, tech, optimal #health, #longevity, quantified self, #DIY, & more‘. It presently has >2500 tweets and up to one million views a month in traffic.

         Robert Lufkin has had a lifelong interest in neuroscience and artificial intelligence. During high school in the Boston area, he was fortunate to be able to attend classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT]. During that time he also worked at the New England Primate Center affiliated with Harvard University where he helped in the laboratories of David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel who studied the mammalian visual system. They later received the Nobel Prize for their work describing the neurophysiology of the visual cortex.

         In college at Brown University, Robert did original experimental research in the neurophysiology of the mammalian visual system, specifically the superior colliculus. He also minored in computer science and worked part-time in the main campus computer center as a machine operator to earn extra money.

            Robert next attended the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where he also studied computer science in healthcare at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He completed an internship in internal medicine at the University of Oregon Center for Health Sciences.  He completed a residency in diagnostic radiology [where he served as Chief Resident] at the University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA] School of Medicine.  After residency he did a fellowship in Neuroradiology/Head and Neck Radiology with Dr. William Hanafee and was recruited to join the faculty at UCLA where he eventually became a tenured Professor of Radiology.

Robert has served as a tenured medical school professor for decades and is author of over 200 peer reviewed scientific papers, 32 chapters and 13 books translated into four languages on medical imaging. He has an international reputation for excellence, has given invited lectures/keynotes around the world and was named one of the 100 most creative people in Los Angeles by Buzz Magazine. His honors include serving as President of the Society of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, President of the American Society of Head and Neck Radiology, and numerous other professional affiliations.  Among his many inventions including patents in artificial intelligence, he developed and helped commercialize an MR-compatible biopsy needle which is sold and used worldwide today as the “Lufkin Needle.”  He has also founded and/or invested in several technology companies. 

This diverse experience has paid off when he ventured into his current social media.