About
Dr. Busam graduated from the medical school of the University of Freiburg in Germany with doctoral thesis in Biochemistry. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute he completed a residency in Anatomic Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and subsequently a fellowship in Dermatopathology at the combined Harvard program. In 1996 he joined the department of Pathology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City, where is the director of the Dermatopathology service. He is also the medical director of the Clinical Immunohistochemistry Laboratory and director of MSKCC's Dermatopathology fellowship program, which is affiliated with Cornell University. Dr. Busam is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Cornell University.
Dr. Busam’s academic work has been largely focused on improvements in the diagnostic accuracy and prognosis of melanocytic and other skin tumors through clinicopathologic correlations and the use of ancillary methods, including immunohistochemistry, cytogenetics, and sequence analysis. He leads the pathology core of the NIH-funded InterMel international melanoma research consortium. Collaborative efforts with colleagues locally, nationally and internationally have led to more than 450 publications in journals. For his academic contributions he received the 2021 Founders award of the ASDP.
Dr. Busam is passionate about sharing knowledge. He has edited, co-edited or contributed chapters to leading textbooks in melanocyte tumor pathology, general Dermatopathology, and the WHO skin tumor book. He also organized or contributed as lecturer to many educational courses or seminars. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Am J Surg Pathol, Mod Pathol, and Am J Dermatopathol. He has served on various committees of the ASDP and on the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR) expert committee for melanoma. Dr. Busam also chairs the ICCR expert committee for Merkel cell carcinoma.