Büchler was born in Saarlouis, Saar Protectorate to Eugene Büchler, a medical internist, and his wife Erika. He spent his school years in Dillingen and in the catholic boarding school in Sasbach in 1974. Markus W. Büchler is married to Hedwig Maria Breunig-Büchler and has four children.
Medical and scientific career
From 1974 to 1979, Büchler studied medicine at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg. Subsequently, he trained in general and cardiovascular surgery at the Free University of Berlin in 1979/80, where, upon completion of the training in 1980, he obtained the medical license. In the same year he defended his doctoral thesis and received the Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Heidelberg. He further specialised in surgery at the University of Ulm, where he qualified for habilitation and was appointed an attending surgeon in 1987. In 1991 he became associate professor and the vice chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Ulm. In 1993, Büchler moved to Switzerland where he became professor of surgery and chairman of the Department of Visceral and Transplantation Surgery at the University of Bern, Inselspital. In 1999 he also headed the Department of Gastrointestinal, Liver and Lung Diseases at the University of Bern, Inselspital. In June 2000, he received a call to the Chair of General and Visceral Surgery at the University of Ulm, but he did not succeed. In 2001, he returned to Germany and took up the call to the full professorship of surgery and became chairman of the Department of General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery at Heidelberg University Hospital. Since 2003 he is managing medical director of the Department of Surgery at Heidelberg University Hospital. In parallel, he heads the Departments of Surgery at in Heidelberg since 2005, at the General Hospital in Sinsheim since 2009, at the General Hospital in Eberbach since 2012, and at the General Hospital in Heppenheim since 2013. Markus W. Büchler is a surgical expert for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and especially the hepatobiliary system. His surgical focus is on hepatobiliary, colorectal, and pancreatic surgery and transplant surgery. As a surgeon, he has developed new surgical methods and, with his staff in Heidelberg, carries out more than 800 operations at the pancreas per year. At his initiative, the was established at Heidelberg University Hospital. As an academic surgeon, he specializes in translational medicine, oncological surgery and the development of new surgical techniques. He is co-author of more than 2,500 scientific publications focused on gastrointestinal cancers, pancreatic diseases and clinical surgical issues. Among others, Markus Büchler was elected president of the Swiss Society for Visceral Surgery in 1999 and 2000, vice-president of the Swiss Surgical Society in 2000, president of the European Pancreatic Club in 2002, president of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, chairman of the German Society for General and Visceral Surgery for the 2010-2011 period and president of the German Surgical Society of Surgery in 2012. He acts as an editor and a member of editorial boards of international medical journals., has been Editor-in-Chief of Digestive Surgery since 1995, and since 2010 he is Editor-in-Chief of Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery.
