Valerie Weiss

Valerie Weiss is a critically-acclaimed, award-winning writer and director who recently completed the prestigious American Film Institute (AFI) Directing Workshop for Women where she directed the short film, Transgressions. Transgressions has been described as A Clockwork Orange meets Pleasantville and has won numerous awards including a BAFTA Student Film Award. Valerie is the founder of the independent film company, PhD Productions. PhD Productions is currently setting up its feature production, Losing Control, about a female scientist applying scientific thinking to her love-life to determine if her boyfriend is “the one.” In 1999, she founded Harvard University’s renowned Dudley Film Program and served as its Filmmaker-in-Residence and Film Festival Director through 2003. Valerie received her PhD in biophysics from Harvard University Medical School. She began her directing career while an undergraduate student at Princeton University. In 2007, Dr. Weiss has been honored as a member of the L’Oreal Panel For Women in Science with astronaut Sally Ride and as a member of the Newsweek Advisory Committee for Women in Leadership along with Laura Ziskin (Spiderman Trilogy) and Lauren Shuler Donner (X-men Trilogy).