Bernhard Wehrli is Professor for Aquatic Chemistry at the Department of Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich and a member of the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics (IBP) and the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy (ISTP). His main research group is located at Eawag.

The research projects of his group follow an interdisciplinary agenda to analyze the biogeochemistry of inland waters. His research team is studying lakes, rivers and wetlands in Europe and Africa with chemical sensors, stable isotope techniques and molecular ecology in order to quantify the cycles of carbon, nutrients and pollutants in aquatic systems.

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. on the aquatic chemistry of vanadium. 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. Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching and research is his main passion.