Samuel Buss received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1985. He has been with UCSD since 1988; he is Professor in the Department of Mathematics and holds an Adjunct appointment in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Buss's research is in the area of logic and theoretical computer science, with particular emphasis on proof complexity and computational complexity. He has also published papers on computer graphics, numerical methods, and bioinformatics. In other activities, he has contributed algorithms and software designs for a number of commercially successful computer games. He was a joint thesis advisor for a student whose Ph.D. thesis won both the Sacks prize in logic and the Ackermann Award in theoretical computer science.

Buss was the Chair of the Department of Mathematics from 2006 through 2010; he has also served as the Vice-Chair for Undergraduate Affairs and the Vice-Chair for Graduate Affairs.

Buss' primary research is in Logic and Theoretical Computer Science. He also works in Numerical Methods and Computer Graphics. He has published in many prestigious journals and conference proceedings, and has written a book on Bounded Arithmetic and a book on Computer Graphics. He serves on the editorial boards of six journals.