Devra Davis

Devra Lee Davis (b. 1946) is an American epidemiologist and the author of When Smoke Ran Like Water, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002. Davis's second book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer was published by Basic Books in October 2007.

She is currently the director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, and Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School. A former Scholar in Residence at the National Academies of Science, she completed her Ph.D. in science studies at the University of Chicago as a Danforth Fellow, and a M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins University as a National Cancer Institute post-doctoral fellow. Davis received a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967.

She was born June 7, 1946, in Washington, DC, the daughter of Harry B. and Jean Langer Davis, and was raised in Donora, Pennsylvania and in Pittsburgh, where she graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School.

From 1970-76 she was assistant professor of sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York. Beginning in 1982 she was a faculty associate at Johns Hopkins University, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Hygiene and Public Health. She served as a visiting professor at University of Madrid in 1983; Municipal Institute, Barcelona, Spain, in 1985; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, Department of Community Medicine, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in 1988; and Hebrew University, School of Public Health, Unit of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in 1989.

Davis married Richard D. Morgenstern on October 19, 1975; their children are Aaron and Lea.

Listening

 * Fresh Air interview, October 4, 2007