David P. Ballou is a professor emeritus of biological chemistry at the University of Michigan Medical School in the United States.

[1] He is best known for his development of rapid-reaction techniques,[2] including stopped flow and rapid freeze-quench EPR methods,[3] as tools to study the mechanisms of enzymes containing flavin,[4] iron,[5] cobalamin, or pyridoxal phosphate cofactors.

From 1971-1972, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Vincent Massey and Minor J. Coon at the University of Michigan.

He has been a faculty member in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan Medical School since 1972.

In 2007, Ballou became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of his discovery of enzyme intermediates that are involved in biological oxidation reactions.