David McAdams

Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

David McAdams is the Robert A. Bandeen Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Economics at Duke University. An economic theorist specializing in game theory and market design, McAdams has applied his expertise to address global health challenges, particularly antimicrobial resistance (AMR). His 2014 book Game-Changer: Game Theory and the Art of Transforming Strategic Situations (W.W. Norton) showed how rapid diagnostics “change the game” of combating AMR, making it possible (in principle) to reverse Darwinian selection against antimicrobial-resistant pathogens even if there are no biological fitness costs associated with resistance. The ideas in that initial analysis were refined and eventually published in PLoS Biology with co-authors including renowned epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch (Harvard Chan) and microbial ecologist Sam Brown (Georgia Tech Biological Sciences); see McAdams et al (2019). Since then, his cross-disciplinary work has spanned economics, biology, and public health, including publications in BMJ Global Health, WHO Bulletin, Nature Reviews Microbiology, and Think Global Health.