Hirsch was raised in a con­ser­v­a­tive Jew­ish house­hold in Mass­a­chu­setts. After fin­ish­ing his under­grad at Bran­deis, he received his PhD from George­town, and con­tin­ued in aca­d­e­mics at Johns Hop­kins and Mary­land in Neu­rovi­rol­o­gy. He then moved to the biotech­nol­o­gy indus­try devel­op­ing impor­tant antivi­ral and immuno­log­i­cal agents. He has worked on a vari­ety of med­ical con­di­tions, from MS to trans­plants to Covid. Robert lives in Naples, FL with his wife Amy, and trav­els to NY and RI to vis­it their chil­dren and grand­kids when con­di­tions are appropriate!