Guenter B. Risse
Risse in 2010
Born	(1932-04-28)April 28, 1932 (age 93) Buenos,Argentina
Alma mater	Colegio Nacional University of Buenos Aires University of Chicago
Scientific career
Fields	History of medicine
Institutions	University of Minnesota University of Wisconsin–Madison University of California, San Francisco University of California, Berkeley

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

Risse is a native ofBuenos Aires,Argentina, where he obtained hisbaccalaureate degree from theColegio Nacional in 1951 prior to gaining admission to theUniversity of Buenos Aires School of Medicine. Following graduation with a magna cum laude M.D. in 1958, he came to the US to complete aninternship and training ininternal medicine.^[1]

In 1962, Risse returned to the classroom, following admission to theUniversity of Chicago. Originally enrolled at theOriental Institute, he studiedancient Egyptian culture andlanguage under the direction of the distinguished EgyptologistJohn Wilson. A 1965 plan to participate in an excavation project inSaqqara near the suspected tomb ofImhotep, the ancient god of healing, was not approved by theEgypt Exploration Fund because the dig was restricted to trained archeologists.^[2] Such an outcome and shifts in excavation plans followingUNESCO's call to saveNubian monuments from the impending flooding caused by the newAswan Dam, induced him to transfer to the History Department. Here he worked under ProfessorsAllen G. Debus andLester S. King, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1971. His dissertation dealt with eighteenth-century medical systems, notably the theories of the Scottish physicianJohn Brown and their impact in Germany during the early 1800s.^[3]

Risse held academic appointments at the University of Chicago (1963–1967),University of Minnesota (1969–1971),University of Wisconsin–Madison (1972–1985), and University of CaliforniaSan Francisco, andBerkeley, (1985–2001).^[4] As chair he developed the Department of the History of Medicine in University of Wisconsin–Madison during the early 1970s. In 1985 he reorganized the Department of the History of Health Sciences in San Francisco. He is a member of theAmerican Association for the History of Medicine,History of Science Society,European Association for the History of Health and Medicine, also holding corresponding memberships in severalEuropean andLatin American societies; he was also elected to the now defunct International Academy of Medicine in 1977. A fellowship from theWorld Health Organization in 1979 allowed him to study the history of Latin America's health care systems. As part of this project, he established close relationships with theSociedad Mexicana de Historia y Filosofia in the early 1980s.^[5] In addition, Risse was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at theUniversity of Edinburgh in 1986 and the Sir Logan Campbell Distinguished Visitor at theUniversity of Auckland School of Medicine in 1994. He was active in the creation of the European Association for the History of Health and Medicine and co-sponsored the establishment of theInternational Network for the History of Hospitals. He is also a past president of the American Association for the History of Medicine (1988–1990).

• Editor and contributor,Modern China and Traditional Chinese Medicine, Springfield: C. Thomas, 1973.
• Editor and translator,History of Physiology, by K. E. Rothschuh, Huntington: R. E. Krieger, 1973 and 1981.
• Edited with R. L. Numbers, and J. W. Leavitt,Medicine Without Doctors: Home Health Care in American History, New York: Science History Publications, 1977.
• Hospital Life in Enlightenment Scotland: Care and Teaching at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
• Edited with Victoria A. Harden,AIDS and the Historian: Proceedings of a Conference at the National Institutes of Health 20–21 March 1989, Bethesda: N.I.H. Publications, 1991.
• Edited with Robert Jütte and John Woodward,Culture, Knowledge and Healing: Historical Perspectives of Homeopathic Medicine in Europe and North America, Sheffield: European Ass. for the History of Medicine and Health Publ., 1998.
• Mending Bodies—Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• New Medical Challenges During the Scottish Enlightenment, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. (Clio Medica 78)
• Plague, Fear and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.
• Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence, University of Illinois Press; 1 edition (December 30, 2015).

• Official website
• Academic homepage, Department of Bioethics and Humanities. University of Washington
• Academic homepage, Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, University of California, San FranciscoArchived 2014-06-01 at theWayback Machine
• Full list of publications on Researchgate.net
• Full list of publications on USCF Academia.edu

• American medical historians
• Living people
• 1932 births
• People from Buenos Aires
• University of Buenos Aires alumni
• University of Chicago alumni
• University of Chicago faculty
• University of Minnesota faculty
• University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
• University of California, San Francisco faculty
• University of California, Berkeley faculty
• American Egyptologists
• 21st-century American historians
• 21st-century American male writers
• American male non-fiction writers

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