Dr. Wernig is a Professor in the Departments of Pathology and Chemical and Systems Biology and Co-Director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University. He graduated with an M.D. Ph.D. from the Technical University of Munich where he trained in developmental genetics in the lab of Rudi Balling. After completing his residency in Neuropathology and General Pathology at the University of Bonn, he then became a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research/ MIT in Cambridge, MA.

He received an NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the Cozzarelli Prize for Outstanding Scientific Excellence from the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., the Outstanding Investigator Award from the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the New York Stem Cell Foundation Robertson Stem Cell Prize, and more recently was awarded the Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize presented by the Gladstone Institutes and has been named a HHMI Faculty Scholar.