Staff: David Berrigan, Ph.D., M.P.H.

David Berrigan

David Berrigan, Ph.D., M.P.H.

(he/him/his)
Program Director
Organization: Contact:
berrigad@mail.nih.gov
240-276-6752

David Berrigan, Ph.D., M.P.H., has been a biologist in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences since 2003. He joined the Health Behaviors Research Branch (HBRB) in 2015. Previously, he served as a Cancer Prevention Fellow with funding from the Division of Cancer Prevention from 1999-2003. Before coming to NCI, he was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the University of Washington and at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, with funding from the National Science Foundation and USDA. Dr. Berrigan received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Utah in 1993, a B.A. from Reed College in 1983, M.S. from UC Davis in 1987, and M.P.H. from UC Berkeley in 2000.

Dr. Berrigan supports a portfolio of grants, contracts, and research activities concerning energy balance and cancer control with a focus on built environment, evaluation of natural experiments, physical activity, and alcohol. His research focuses on primary prevention, population data, and methodological studies aimed at improving data concerning behavior and environment. Three recent resources he has helped develop are: 1) ACT24: Activities Completed over Time in 24 hours, an online physical activity data collection tool; 2) ADOPT Core Measures environmental data layers and methods resource for addressing moderators of response to weight loss interventions; and 3) Youth Compendium of Physical Activities, an updated catalog of youth activities and their associated levels of energy expenditure Housed at the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity (NCCOR). David is a founding member of the TRB Committee on Transportation and Public Health.

Dr. Berrigan is strongly committed to research aimed at health for all via programs and policies that foster healthy behaviors and healthy environments regardless of demographic or economic circumstances.


David Berrigan's CV is available at: Berrigan's CV


Secondary Branch/Office Appointment:  Tobacco Control Research Branch (TCRB)

Current and/or past BRP mentees include Kimberly Clevenger and Jennifer Zink.


Research Areas

  • Physical activity and the built environment
  • Energy balance and carcinogenesis
  • Geospatial approaches to cancer prevention and control

Selected Publications and Presentations

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