This scientist, author, and documentary filmmaker has dedicated much of his career to studying humankind's family tree and closing the gaps in our knowledge of human migration. Wells was recently named project director of the groundbreaking multiyear Genographic Project, which uses DNA samples to trace human migration out of Africa over 60,000 years ago. For Wells, the assignment is a dream come true, marrying his two passions of biology and history.

Wells's own journey of discovery began at the University of Texas, where he enrolled at 16, majored in biology, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa three years later. He then pursued his Ph.D. at Harvard University.

Beginning in 1994, he conducted postdoctoral training at Stanford University's School of Medicine with Luca Cavalli-Sforza, considered the "father of anthropological genetics." It was there that Wells became committed to studying genomic diversity in indigenous populations and unraveling age-old mysteries about early human migration.

Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project
"Everybody loves a good story, and when it's finished, this will be the greatest one ever told. It begins in Africa with a group of hunter-gatherers, perhaps just a few hundred strong. It ends some 200,000 years later with their six and a half billion descendants spread across the Earth," so begins writer James Shreeve in his report from the front lines of the Genographic Project. This gifted young pioneer, recently named a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, will share his latest discoveries and outline plans for the ambitious Genographic Project.