Ron Weiss graduated from Brandeis University in 1992 with baccalaureates in computer science and economics. He then entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning his master's degree in 1994 and his Ph. D. in electrical engineering and computer science in 2001, for his work on cellular computation using engineered gene regulatory networks. That same year, he took an appointment as Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, where he also holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Molecular Biology. He has extensive research experience in the field of synthetic biology, for which he has won numerous awards, and also serves as the editor in chief of the journal Synthetic and Systems Biology. His research focuses on programming biological organisms by embedding synthetic biochemical logic circuits into cells, as well as embedding sensors, actuators, and intercellular communication mechanisms.