Gary L. Wells is Professor of Psychology at Iowa State University and Director of Social Science Research at the American Judicature Society’s Institute of Forensic Science and Public Policy in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is an internationally recognized scholar in scientific psychology and his studies of eyewitness memory are widely known and cited. Wells has authored over 150 articles and chapters and two books. Most of this work has been focused on the reliability of eyewitness identification. His research on eyewitness identification is funded by the National Science Foundation and his findings have been incorporated into standard textbooks in psychology and law. His research-based proposals on lineup procedures, such as the use of double-blind techniques, are being increasingly accepted in law enforcement practices across the U.S.

He has given more than 100 workshops and presentations to trial judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and police across the U.S. and Canada in the last five years. He was a founding member of the U.S. Department of Justice group that developed the first set of national guidelines for eyewitness evidence. He co-chaired the panel that wrote the Justice Department training manual for law enforcement on the collection and preservation of eyewitness identification evidence, which has been distributed to every law enforcement agency in the U.S.  Wells has worked with prosecutors and police in New Jersey, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Washington, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado, Iowa, New York, Florida, Tennessee, and other states to reform the way they conduct police lineups.