David W. Christianson

David W. Christianson
Born (1961-06-09) June 9, 1961
Attleboro, Massachusetts
EducationHarvard College, A.B. (1983)
Harvard University, A.M. (1985)
Harvard University, Ph.D. (1987)
University of Pennsylvania, M.A. (honoris causa, 1993)
Known forStructural and mechanistic studies of enzymes
AwardsPfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry (1999)
Guggenheim Fellowship (2006)
Repligen Corporation Award in Chemistry of Biological Processes (2013)
Fellow of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute (2015-2016)
Inspirational Educator Award, Oxford University (2019) American Chemical Society Philadelphia Section Award (2021)
Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2025)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Pennsylvania
Cambridge University
Harvard University

David W. Christianson is an American biochemist and structural biologist. He has served on the faculty of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Pennsylvania since 1988, where he is currently the Roy and Diana Vagelos Professor in Chemistry and Chemical Biology. His research focuses on enzyme structure, mechanism, and inhibition, and he has published more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers. Along with Professor Karen Allen at Boston University, he is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the well-known serial Methods in Enzymology.