Joshua Weiner, Associate Dean for Research and Infrastructure and Professor of Biology, earned his PhD in Neurosciences from the University of California, San Diego, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is a developmental neurobiologist whose research program has focused on the molecular mechanisms of neural circuit formation. His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and private foundations including the March of Dimes and the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust. He has authored over 70 publications, generating >9,300 citations. In addition to his CLAS role, Weiner serves as an Associate Director of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute. In 2024, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Since joining CLAS in 2004, Weiner has been an innovative teacher and mentor. The former Associate Chair for Graduate Education in Biology, he has mentored 11 PhD students, two postdocs, and 25 undergraduate researchers, and received the Graduate College's Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award in 2018. He developed a popular general education course called "How the Brain Works (And Why it Doesn't)," receiving the CLAS Collegiate Teaching Award in 2017. That year, he co-founded the interdisciplinary undergraduate neuroscience major, which has seen rapid enrollment growth.

Weiner is interested in the interactions between science and the arts and humanities and plans outreach events for the Iowa Neuroscience Institute exploring those connections.

Contact Catherine Moore to schedule an appointment with Associate Dean Weiner.