Foss Leach CNZM is a New Zealand prehistorian. A strong advocate of collaborative cross-disciplinary research in archaeological science, he has published more than 100 scientific papers and books. He has contributed scholarly evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal for both the Crown and Māori claimants for hearings of Ngāi Tahu, Muriwhenua, Te Rorora and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa. He has carried out archaeological fieldwork in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Micronesia. In 1988 he founded the Archaeozoology Laboratory at the Museum of New Zealand and was its curator until 2001, when he retired. He has served as an officer of many New Zealand and international organisations concerned with archaeology and has held a number of honorary fellowships in New Zealand and abroad.