William W. Busse, MD

ATS 2014 attendees are invited to a special evening reception May 17, devoted to supporting research and honoring world-renowned educator, clinician, and researcher William W. Busse, MD, at the Sixth Annual ATS Foundation Research Program Benefit, which will take place at the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego.

A highlight of the evening will be the presentation of the 2014 Breathing for Life Award—the highest honor given by the ATS Foundation in recognition of philanthropy—to Dr. Busse.

If you are planning to attend ATS 2014, please register for the Benefit. Every dollar contributed will go directly to support research awards for early career scientists. If you are unable to attend the Benefit but wish to place an ad or make a donation to the Research Program in honor of Dr. Busse, please contribute online.

Since 2002, the ATS Foundation has awarded more than $10 million in grants to 145 junior investigators, launching careers for a new generation of researchers. Past research program grant recipients have gone on to secure $100 million in additional research funding from the National Institutes of Health and other funding resources, publish in many prestigious national and international journals, and become mentors to the next generation of researchers.

Dr. Busse’s impassioned advocacy of early stage researchers and generosity toward the ATS Foundation Research Program has given talented young investigators in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine a lifeline at crucial moments in their careers. Because his clinical and research interests are central to the ATS and the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, the Foundation invites friends and colleagues in both organizations to celebrate his remarkable dedication to helping patients.

Dr. Busse’s relationship with the ATS began in 1976 when it awarded him a two-year research grant to help kick start his asthma laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since then, he has become a noted expert in the field and has gained recognition for his breakthrough research in eosinophilic inflammation and rhinovirus-induced asthma with more than 400 papers to his credit. To make sure that more generations of young investigators receive the support they need to make a similar impact, Dr. Busse has contributed generously to the ATS Foundation Research Program.

Dr. Busse, who won an ATS Award for Scientific Accomplishment in 2005, has received continuous funding for his asthma research through the National Institutes of Health, and he’s currently principal investigator of the NIH-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Inner City Asthma Consortium, which focuses on immune-based therapy for asthma in inner-city children.

He has served on the advisory council of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, an expert panel on the Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma, and the NHLBI’s Board of External Experts. He has also served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Since joining the UW-Madison faculty in 1974, Dr. Busse’s mentees have included Robert Lemanske, MD, the head of the Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology at UW-Madison, James E. Gern, MD, professor of pediatrics at UW-Madison, Nizar N. Jarjour, MD, professor of medicine and head of the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at UW-Madison, and William J. Calhoun, MD, vice chair for research in the Department of Internal Medicine Division of Pulmonary Critical Care & Sleep Medicine University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas. In addition, Dr. Busse has had the opportunity to work closely with many of the post-doctoral fellows in the allergy and immunology training program for the past decade.

The Benefit promises to be among one of the most important—and fun—social events at ATS 2014. We look forward to seeing you and to achieving our shared vision of supporting a new generation of researchers in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine.

The ATS Sixth Annual ATS Foundation Research Program Benefit is the perfect way to kick off ATS 2014.

For more information, contact Erin Marie Nebel at emnebel@thoracic.org or call 212-315-6464.

The ATS Foundation thanks all of the individual supporters who have given so generously to the Benefit and the following companies for supporting the Sixth Annual ATS Foundation Research Program Benefit:

Gold Level
$25,000: AstraZeneca LP

Bronze Level
$5,000: Meda Pharmaceuticals, Inc.