Dr. George Wells is a Louis Berger Junior Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University.  Dr. Wells received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering and B.A. in Environmental Engineering from Rice University in 2004, where he first became interested in environmental engineering research while developing reactive nanostructured ceramic membranes for water treatment applications.  

After a short period working on relevant environmental issues in the chemical industry at BP Chemicals in Naperville, Illinois.  Wells joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, where he completed his M.S. (2006) and Ph.D. (2011). The Wells Environmental Biotechnology and Microbial Ecology (WE BioME) Lab works at the interface of environmental biotechnology and microbial ecology, with an emphasis on the study of microbial diversity, dynamics, interactions, and function in engineered and impacted natural aquatic systems. Our primary research interests are microbial nitrogen cycling and short-circuit biological nutrient removal processes, microbial ecology of engineered and natural settings, sustainable biological wastewater treatment, microbial greenhouse gas production, and resource and energy recovery from waste​.