Harry Joseph Weiss was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 15, 1923. He received his B.S. (1947) in mathematics, M.S. (1949) in applied mathematics and a D.Sc. (1951) also in applied mathematics from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.



Prior to coming to Iowa State University, Weiss was an Assistant Professor of mathematics (1947-1951) at Carnegie Technical Institute (Carnegie Mellon University) and was Assistant Professor of applied mathematics (1951-1953) at Brown University. He joined the faculty at Iowa State College (University) in 1953 as an Assistant Professor (1953-1956) of mathematics and was promoted to Associate Professor (1956-1962), Professor (1962-1989) and Head (1964-1986) of the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics. Weiss retired in 1989 and was named Professor Emeritus of aerospace engineering and mathematics. Throughout his career Weiss' main focus of research was in applied mathematics, continuum mechanics, and integral transforms.



In addition to his teaching and administrative duties at Iowa State, Weiss also provided consulting services to industry and was active in professional organizations. He was a Visiting Scientist (1961) at the National Bureau of Standards, Consultant (1954-1959) to the U.S. Air Force Office of Ordinance Research (1954-1959), and Consultant (1962-1965) to General Dynamics Astronautics. Weiss was a member of the American Society for Engineering Education and served on their Executive Committee (1981-1984), President (1965) of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and President (1967-1969) of the Midwest Mechanics Conference. At Iowa State, Weiss was named President (1972) of the Osborne Research Club, Chair (1974-1976) of the Department Executive Officers Council, and President of the ISU Chapters of Phi Kappa Phi (1982) and Sigma Xi (1966).



Weiss married Marion Rivkees of Pittsburgh in 1947. They had three children.