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Dr. Richard D. deShazo is the Billy S. Guyton Distinguished Professor, professor of medicine and pediatrics and chair of the department of medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. In that role, he is responsible for the educational, research, clinical and administrative activities of the largest department in the Ole Miss system. He also has an active medical practice as a clinical immunologist.

Dr. deShazo, a graduate of Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama, received the MD degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed an internship in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, residency in internal medicine and fellowship in adult and pediatric allergy/immunology at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and a research fellowship at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, DC. He is board certified in the medical specialties of internal medicine, allergy-immunology, rheumatology and geriatrics. Before becoming chair at the University of Mississippi, he served on the faculties of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Services, the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Tulane University and was chair of medicine at the University of South Alabama.

Dr. deShazo has served as a board member of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology, the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Medical Specialists and the Association of Professors of Medicine. He is past president of the Association of Professors of Medicine and the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. He has served on the Council of Academic Specialists of the American Association of Medical Colleges for over 10 years. He is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific publications in the areas of clinical immunology and has served on the editorial boards of four scientific journals. He is an associate editor of the American Journal of Medicine in the specialty area of allergy and immunology.

Dr. deShazo received a Special Service Award from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in 1993 for his work as Editor of the Primer of Allergy and Immunology and a second Special Service Medal for overall contributions to the specialty in 2006. He was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in 2006. Other awards include the US Army Meritorious Service Award, the Hoff Medal of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the Mayor's Award for Special Service from the City of New Orleans, the Bernard Berman Lectureship from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the Dr. Robert D. and Alma W. Moreton Original Research Award of the Southern Medical Association and the Founders' Medal of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. He was elected a Distinguished Alumnus of Birmingham-Southern College in 2003 and has been consistently listed in Best Doctors.