David Malcolm ​Potts, MB, BChir, PhD, FRCOG

Biography

David Malcolm Potts is a human reproductive scientist and Professor of Public Health at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the first holder of the Fred H. Bixby-endowed chair in Population and Family Planning and founding director of the Bixby Center for Population, Health, and Sustainability at the School of Public Health. Potts completed a medical degree and a PhD in embryology at the University of Cambridge.

He has published ten books and over 350 scientific papers and articles. His books include Abortion (co-written with Peter Diggory and John Peel, 1977), Textbook of Contraceptive Practice (1st edition co-written with John Peel, 1969; 2nd edition co-written with Peter Diggory, 1983; long the key textbook in the field), Queen Victoria’s Gene (written with his brother Prof. William Potts), Ever since Adam and Eve: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (written with Dr Roger Short, 1999) and Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World (co-written with Thomas Hayden, 2008).

Research Interests

• Mobilization of resources for international family planning
• Reducing nonevidence-based barriers preventing access to contraception and safe abortion
• Reducing maternal deaths, especially through the use of misoprostol to control postpartum hemorrhage
• Evolution of human sexual behavior
• Biological origins of human warfare
• AIDS prevention strategies, resources, and role of male circumcision

Education

• PhD – Anatomy
  Cambridge University, 1965
• MB, BChir (MD) – University College Hospital Medical School, 1962
• MA – Natural Sciences
  Cambridge University, 1960
• BA – Cambridge University, 1959

Courses Taught

• • PB HLTH 116
  • Seminar on Social, Political and Ethical Issues
  • Health and Medical Apprenticeship Program
• • PB HLTH 181
  • Population and Poverty
  • (co-taught Prata and Campbell)