George M. Wilson received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1965. He is a Professor Emeritus of History and the East Asian Studies Center, and former Director of the East Asian Studies Center at Indiana University Bloomington. His research interests include modern Japanese intellectual and cultural history, Nationalism and revolution in Japan, and East Asian history.

Walter Nugent, a University of Notre Dame historian, notes that Wilson has expanded IU's unusual tradition of internationalism that Herman Wells initiated and John Ryan continued.