David Spencer Waugh

David S. Waugh, Ph.D., a renowned Structural and Molecular Biologist, passed away on September 9, 2026 at the age of 66. A resident of Frederick Maryland for more than 30 years, he was born in Los Angeles, raised in Connecticut, and attended Yale University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry. He later went on to obtain his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Indiana University. He received the Esther L. Kinsley award for the most outstanding Ph.D dissertation presented to the graduate school at IU in 1989 (all departments).

After completing post-doctoral studies at M.I.T., Dr. Waugh worked at Hoffmann La Roche, where he conducted research on new drug candidates, before being recruited by the National Cancer Institute. At the NCI, on the Ft. Detrick campus, Dr. Waugh worked as a tenured Principal Research Investigator for many years. Although he was officially attached to the NCI, David was most interested in combating infectious diseases, particularly those that might be weaponized by hostile adversaries, like plague and smallpox. His principal contribution to this effort was determining the atomic structures of critical protein molecules produced by these pathogens that were essential for their ability to infect human cells, making them potential targets for antidotes. Later, Waugh also used X-ray crystallography as a tool to investigate the binding of small molecule ligands to proteins involved in cancer. At the same time, Dr. Waugh pioneered the development of novel methods to produce proteins on a large scale for structural studies. His work has been published in numerous prestigious scientific journals, and he was a frequent speaker at scientific conferences worldwide.

In his spare time, Dr. Waugh enjoyed landscape gardening, playing the piano, stained glass craft, and reading.

Dr. Waugh leaves behind two sons: Christopher and Alexander; two granddaughters, Isabella and Khalila; his brother Steven; his sister in-law Patricia; nephews Robert, Michael, William, and niece Virginia. His family will celebrate his life privately at a later date.