Bernhard Wehrli is head of the research group Aquatic Chemistry at Eawag and Professor for Aquatic Chemistry at the Department of Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich. There he is also a member of the corresponding Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics (IBP). As Director of Studies, he succeeds Jukka Jokela, Eawag directorate member, who held the post for three years.

Bernhard Wehrli studied chemistry at ETH Zurich and sanitary engineering and water protection in an ETH graduate course. In 1987 he finished his Ph.D. in the group of Werner Stumm. He had the opportunity to spend one year as a postdoc at Caltech in Pasadena and additional time as a guest scientist at universities in Paris, Toulouse and Jerusalem. In Switzerland, he was appointed assistant professor for Aquatic Chemistry at ETH Zurich in 1991. He was a member of the research council of the Swiss National Science Foundation and of the Eawag directorate. Advancing interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching and research is the most important challenge in his daily business.

The research of Bernhard Wehrli's group is focused on the assessment of biogeochemical processes in rivers and lakes. His research team is studying lake and river systems in Europe and Africa, and – more recently – South America. A part of his research group is based at Eawag in Kastanienbaum on Lake Lucerne.