Paul Wason is responsible for developing new research initiatives investigating the evolution and fundamental nature of life, human life, and mind, especially as they relate to issues of meaning and purpose. Before joining the Foundation, he spent ten years at Bates College as director of foundations and corporations and as a sponsored-research administrator.

An anthropologist with a specialty in prehistoric archaeology, Dr. Wason received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bates College, where he earned a B.S. in biology. His research on inequality, social evolution, and archaeological theory has been published as The Archaeology of Rank (1994).