Dr. Greg Weiss

Gregory Weiss is a Professor of Chemical Biology and Faculty Innovation Fellow at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in the Departments of Chemistry, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He earned a BS from UC Berkeley and a PhD from Harvard. His undergraduate and graduate research focused on the development of heterocyclic mimics of peptides. Awarded a Ruth Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the NIH, he returned the funding to pursue post-doctoral studies with Dr. Jim Wells, then at Genentech.

In 2000, he joined the faculty at UCI where his laboratory focuses on the interface between chemistry and biology, including studies of enzymes, molecular recognition, and bioelectronics. His awards include Outstanding Professor in the School of Physical Sciences at UCI (elected by the graduating students), Beckman Foundation Young Investigator, and election to Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has published around 100 peer-reviewed articles in chemical biology, biophysics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and organic chemistry. He Co-Founded and then was twice elected Co-Chair of the Global Young Academy, which includes 200 top young scientists from >55 countries. With Dr. David Van Vranken, he co-authored Introduction to Bioorganic Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

In 2015, he was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry for leading the team that partially unboiled the egg. He has started two biotech companies (PhageTech and Debut Biotech) and was named UCI’s Entrepreneurial Leader of the Year in 2018.

He and his wife, Kim, live in Irvine, California with their five cats.