Professor Wellner received a B.S. in mathematics and physics from the University of Idaho and a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Washington. He was an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Rochester, New York, from 1975 to 1983. He joined the faculty at the University of Washington in 1983 and retired 2020. He has also spent sabbatical time at various international institutions, including a fellowship at the Mathematics Institute of the University of Munich, supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; a fellowship at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, supported by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation; research at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Delft University of Technology, supported by a grant from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) and Delft University; and research at the University of Heidelberg, supported by a Humboldt Research Prize awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Jon's research interests include uses of large sample theory in statistics, theory of empirical processes, and efficient estimation for semiparametric models. He has served as a Co-Editor of the Annals of Statistics and as President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He has also served as the IMS Editor of Statistics Surveys, and Editor of Statistical Science.