William Busse

Before his retirement in 2021, William Busse, MD, had been a faculty member of the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine within the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, where he received his own medical training, since 1974. He has served as head of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Section and as the George R. and Elaine Love Professor and Chair of Medicine. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 

Dr. Busse’s research focuses on the mechanism of asthma, with particular interest in eosinophilic inflammation and rhinovirus-induced asthma, as well as in lung-brain interactions in asthma. He has been the principal investigator for the NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Inner-City Asthma Consortium and previously served on the Advisory Council and as a member of the Board of External Experts for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.  

Dr. Busse has also served as President and member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. He is co-editor of the book “Allergy: Principles and Practice and Asthma and Rhinitis” and was associate editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. In 2001, Dr. Busse was elected to the Association of American Physicians. He received the Folkert Belzer Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, the American Thoracic Society Award for Scientific Accomplishments in 2005, the Citation Award for Achievement from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in 2008, and the American Thoracic Society Foundation Breathing for Life Award in 2014.