Dr. Mark Weiss is Director of the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences Division at the National Science Foundation. This division is housed within the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. Prior to joining NSF, Dr. Weiss was Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Wayne State University. Starting in 1990, Dr. Weiss served as Program Director for Physical Anthropology at NSF. He served in this capacity for three rotations during the 1990s until becoming a permanent employee in 2000. In 2005 Dr. Weiss served as Assistant Director for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. Upon returning to NSF, he served as both the Senior Science Advisor in the SBE Directorate and also as Deputy Assistant Director of the Directorate.

Dr. Weiss' research expertise has been in the application of genetic approaches to the study of nonhuman primate evolution and behavior. His most recent publications focused on the evolution of molecules involved in the generation of energy in the human brain.