Guenter B. Risse

Guenter B. Risse
Dr. Guenter B. Risse, M.D., Ph.D - 2010
Born	(1932-04-28) April 28, 1932 (age 85) Buenos, Argentina
Residence	Seattle, Washington
Citizenship	American
Fields	History of Medicine
Alma mater	Colegio Nacional University of Buenos Aires- School of Medicine University of Chicago

Guenter B. Risse (born 28 April 1932) is an American medical historian. He has written numerous books, including his most recent "Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence." The American Association for the History of Medicine awarded him the 1988 William H. Welch Medal for his book Hospital Life in Enlightenment Scotland and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. He is Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, at the University of California, San Francisco, and currently Affiliate Professor of Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Risse is a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina where he obtained his baccalaureate degree from the Colegio Nacional in 1951 prior to gaining admission to the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine. Following graduation with a magna cum laude M.D. in 1958, he came to the US to complete an internship and training in internal medicine.

In 1962, Risse returned to the classroom, following admission to the University of Chicago. Originally enrolled at the Oriental Institute, he studied ancient Egyptian culture and language under the direction of the distinguished Egyptologist John Wilson. A 1965 plan to participate in an excavation project in Saqqara near the suspected tomb of Imhotep, the ancient god of healing, was not approved by the Egypt Exploration Fund because the dig was restricted to trained archeologists. Such an outcome and shifts in excavation plans following UNESCO's call to save Nubian monuments from the impending flooding caused by the new Aswan Dam, induced him to transfer to the History Department. Here he worked under Professors Allen G. Debus and Lester S. King, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1971. His dissertation dealt with eighteenth-century medical systems, notably the theories of the Scottish physician John Brown and their impact in Germany during the early 1800s.