[3] Pierre Weiss made several experimental discoveries that led to the development of the strongest electromagnets of the beginning of the 20th century.

He later left to continue higher education at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), where he obtained the diploma of mechanical engineer in 1887 as the first in the grade ranking of his class.

His supervisors were Jules Violle and Marcel Brillouin,[7] and the thesis jury was comprised by Charles Friedel, Edmond Bouty [fr] and Henry Pellatt.

According to the witnesses testimony, collected by Nicolas Ballet,[8] Pierre Weiss joined the academics that defended Alfred Dreyfus, who was also of Alsace origin (born in Mulhouse) and another former ETH student.

This position was controversial during his time at Rennes, so Weiss later preferred to teach at the University of Lyon in 1899 due to this issue.

[5] During World War I, he came back to France where he worked with Aimé Cotton in the development of an acoustic system for tracking artillery, known as the Cotton-Weiss method.

The French president Raymond Poincaré declared that the University of Strasbourg had to outperform its precedent German counterpart.

[6] Some of Weiss's remarkable students included Swiss explorer and inventor Auguste Piccard, Spanish physicist Blas Cabrera, and Louis Néel, French Nobel laureate in physics for his work on magnetism.

His hair and large moustache became completely white when he was still quite young.Louis Néel remarked the political fervour of Weiss, who supported Popular front which was badly seen in the mostly conservative population of Strasbourg of the time.