Dr. Alan Wells is the Thomas J. Gill III Professor of Pathology and the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh. Within the UPMC Health System, Dr. Wells is the Medical Director of Clinical Pathology for the entire system and the license holder for the main central system reference laboratory. In addition, Dr. Wells is a Professor of Bioengineering and Computational & Systems Biology (secondary appointments) and a Staff Physician at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Wells holds an AB in Biochemistry from Brown University (1979) and received his DMS in Tumor Biology from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1982. Returning to Providence, Rhode Island, he received his MD from Brown University in 1988. Following his studies, Dr. Wells completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Tumor Biology at the University of California in San Francisco, California, and a Residency in Laboratory Medicine at the University of California in San Diego, California.

Dr. Wells is a member of numerous societies and professional organizations, and has been president of the Wound Healing Society, the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists, and the American Association of University Pathologists. Dr. Wells has held leadership positions within UPMC, including being president of the UPMC PUH/SHY medical staff, and being part of the system-wide leadership council. Dr. Wells has led some two dozen CLIA inspections and has chaired over a dozen study sections/review panels for NIH, DoD and the VA. He has also founded two clinical laboratories, and has been active in the private sector being CMO and CSO of two start-ups.