His research focuses on visual search and visual attention with a particular interest in socially important search tasks in areas such as medical image perception (e.g. cancer screening), security (e.g. baggage screening), and intelligence. He taught Intro. Psychology and other courses for 25 years, mostly at MIT. Wolfe is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of AAAS, APA (Div 1, 3, & 6), and APS. He has been President of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS), President of the Eastern Psychological Association, Chair of the Board of the Psychonomic Society and a member of the Board of the Vision Sciences Society. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (CRPI) and was Editor of Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics. Wolfe also serves on the North American Board of the Union for Reform Judaism.