David P. Landau (born June 22, 1941) is distinguished research professor of physics and founding director of the Center for Simulational Physics at the University of Georgia. In 1967, he received his PhD at Yale University under the direction of Werner P. Wolf. Two years later, he moved to the University of Georgia. Although intending to continue experimental research, he instead initiated high-quality Monte Carlo studies of phase transitions. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He won the Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics, the highest award in computational physics given by the American Physical Society. In 2016, he received the doctor honoris causa degree from the Federal University of Minas Gerais.