Dr. David A. Hamburg, a behavioral scientist with a broad public profile who got to test his theories on conflict resolution with Soviet leaders during the Cold War and in negotiations with African guerrillas holding his students hostage, died on Sunday in Washington. He was 93.

The cause was ischemic colitis, said his daughter, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the chairwoman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

In a sweeping career trajectory, Dr. Hamburg advanced biological and genetic research into the causes of aggression and violence as a psychiatrist, taught at major universities, championed the sciences as the leader of two major professional organizations and, as president of one of the world’s most well-endowed foundations, was able to jump-start many of the programs and policies that until then he had been able only to espouse.

Dr. Hamburg’s résumé included appointments as president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 1982 to 1997; president of the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine from 1975 to 1980; and president and chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 1984 to 1986.