Tom Wessels (born 1951) is an American terrestrial ecologist working as a professor at Antioch University New England in the Department of Environmental Studies, where he founded a master's program in conservation biology.
Wessels went directly into academia, beginning with a post at the now-defunct Windham College in Putney, Vermont.
In 1978, he became an adjunct faculty member at Antioch University New England and was instrumental in developing numerous courses in Environmental Studies Department.
Since 1995 he has served as an ecological consultant for the Rainforest Alliance SmartWood Program in the Northeastern United States.
In his 2006 book The Myth of Progress, Wessels asserts that the aspiration to sustain indefinite exponential economic growth is an impossibility on the grounds that it violates three scientific principles: the limits to growth, the second law of thermodynamics and the law of self organization.