Prof. em. Dr. Bernhard Wehrli

Bernhard Wehrli worked as Professor of Aquatic Chemistry at the Department of Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich until 2022. He was a member of the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics (IBP) and the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy (ISTP). His main research group was located at the deparatment of Surface Waters at Eawag.

His research group followed an interdisciplinary agenda and focused on the biogeochemistry of inland waters. The team analyzed 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.

Bernhard Wehrli studied chemistry at ETH Zurich and sanitary engineering and water protection in an ETH post-graduate course. In 1987 he finished his doctoral project on the aquatic geochemistry 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.  He was appointed assistant professor for Aquatic Chemistry at ETH Zurich in 1991. Later he served first as a department head, then as member of the directorate of Eawag. For serveral years, he was a member of the research council of the Swiss National Science Foundation and later the study director for environmental sciences at ETH. Fostering interdisciplinary perspectives and collaboration in teaching, research and outreach is his main passion.