Robert A. Alberty

Who was Robert A. Alberty?

Robert Arnold Alberty is an American biophysical chemist, Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Alberty earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Nebraska in 1943 and 1944, respectively, then a doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1947. For his work in the area of biochemical thermodynamics, Alberty was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1965. In 1968 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was dean of the MIT School of Science between 1967-1982.

Alberty is also known for his textbooks on physical chemistry, which have gone through many editions. The first one, Physical Chemistry, co-authored with Farrington Daniels, was published in 1957. More recent books of the same title have been co-authored with Robert J. Silbey and Moungi G. Bawendi. Other works include Thermodynamics of Biochemical Reactions and Biochemical Thermodynamics: Applications of Mathematica.

He died at the age of 92 on January 18, 2014.