David Cummings, a physician and obesity researcher at the UW, has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Cummings, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, is a practicing physician at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. He studies how a gastric hormone, ghrelin, affects regulation of appetite and body weight. Cummings also researches the genetics and pathophysiology of obesity, as well as growth hormone therapy and anorexia in chronic disease.

The presidential award was established in 1996 under President Bill Clinton to recognize exceptional potential for leadership in scientific research frontiers. It is the highest honor given by the United States government for scientists and engineers early in their careers. Cummings is one of 12 scientists to receive the award.

Cummings graduated from Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and served as chief medical resident at the Seattle VA Medical Center from 1990 to 1991. In 1993, he was a senior fellow in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition. He joined that division as a faculty member in 1998.

Cummings has also received an NIH Physician-Scientist Award, a Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Career Award, and a Fialkow Scholar Award from the UW Department of Medicine.