Levi joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1984 as Assistant Professor, and is currently Mehrabian Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Research Professor in the Materials Department. Prior to his retirement from teaching he held a joint appointment between the Materials Department, where he was Associate Chair (1992-2003) and more recently Departmental Graduate Advisor (2012-2016), as well as in the Department of Mechanical Engineeering. The overarching theme of his research is the understanding of the microstructure of materials and its evolution during processing and service, with emphasis on the performance and durability of structural materials at high temperature and in severe environments. His expertise in materials processing includes physical vapor deposition, powder processing and solidification technologies, fabrication processes for inorganic composites, and synthesis of inorganics from precursors. His research is currently funded by ONR, ARPA-E, Pratt & Whitney, and IHI Corporationy. He has extensive collaborations with the industries that fund his research, as well as longstanding interactions with GE Vernova, GE Aerospace, Pratt and Whitney and United Technologies Research Center. He is a participant in Pratt & Whitney Center of Excellence in Composites, and the IHI Turbine Materials Research Center at UCSB. He has published over 200 articles on his research, and has been recognized for specific contributions to the literature with the 1983 Howe Medal and the 1989 Grossmann Award, both from ASM International, a 1990 Significant Contribution Award of the MST Division of the American Nuclear Society, and the 2004 DLR Wissenschaftspreis from the German Aerospace Agency. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (2012) and has been honored for his career contributions to Materials Science and Engineering with the 2002 Alexander von Humboldt Forschungspreis (Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists from the AvH Foundation, Germany), the 2008 NIMS Award for Recent Breakthroughs in Materials Science for Energy and Environment (shared with A.G. Evans and D.R. Clarke), the 2014 TMS Morris Cohen Award and, most recently, with election to the National Academy of Engineering (2023).

Professor Levi is a member of the The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), where he has served in the Honors and Professional Recognion Committee, the Governmental and Public Affairs Committee, in the Board of Directors and the leadership of the Materials Processing and Manufacturing Division, as well as numerous technical and administrative committees. He is also a member of The American Ceramic Society, ASM International and the Materials Research Society. He has served in the Board of Review of Metallurgical and Materials Transactions and the Editorial Board of Materials Science and Engineering, and more recently as Series Editor for Elsevier Series on Advanced Ceramics. He is a former member of the Arconic Power and Propulsion Technology Advisory Board, and periodically serves as a consultant for GE Research, GE Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and various other organizations.