Biographical Sketch of Benjamin Weiss

Born in the Bronx and raised on a chicken farm in New Jersey, Ben received his undergraduate and graduate training from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, where he earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1963. He did his post-doctoral training at the National Institutes of Health and Columbia University. Later Weiss spent several years at the National Institute of Mental Health, where he was Chief of the Section of Neuroendocrinology, and the Medical College of Pennsylvania, where he held the positions of Professor of Pharmacology and Psychiatry and Chief of the Division of Neuropsychopharmacology. He was also a Visiting Scientist at the Mario Negri Institute in Milan, Italy, and a Visiting Scientist at the Weitzman Institute in Israel. He currently is Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at Drexel University College of Medicine.

During his scientific career Weiss has edited two books and has published over 300 scientific articles on his research in the fields of Molecular Biology and Molecular Pharmacology. He has been named by the Institute for Scientific Information as one of the Top One Thousand Most Quoted Contemporary Scientists in the World.

Ben was introduced to the field of medal collecting in 1972 and since then has been an avid collector of historical and commemorative medals. He is currently a Member of the Board of the Medal Collectors of America and the Webmaster of the website of the Medal Collectors of America. In addition to collecting medals, Ben has published a website, Collection of Historical and Commemorative Medals ,www.historicalartmedals.com which presents images, descriptions and historical commentaries on over 500 medals, both European and American, dating from the 16th through the 19th centuries. Currently, his main interests are in studying the origins of religious and ethnic intolerance and in publishing articles exploring the role medals play in religious and racial bigotry.