Devra Davis is an American epidemiologist and writer. Her book When Smoke Ran Like Water, which begins with the tale of the Donora Smog of 1948, 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 of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute; the multidisciplinary center includes experts in medicine, basic research, engineering and public policy, who will develop cutting-edge studies to identify the causes of cancer and propose policies to reduce the risks of the disease. Davis is also a 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 Academy of Sciences, she completed her Ph.D. in science studies at the University of Chicago as a Danforth Fellow, and an 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 1967.7.