Andreas Christoph Albrecht (3 June 1927 – 26 September 2002) was an American physical chemist.

Life

Andreas Christoph Albrecht was born in California and raised in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. His father was a German anthropologist. He studied chemistry at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, where he met Genia Solomon, who would later become his wife. He completed his studies in 1950. The pair moved to Washington state for graduate school. They both earned doctorates in 1954 from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

, his in chemistry under W. T. Simpson and hers in biochemistry. Subsequently, Andreas and Genia moved to

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

to work as

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

s. His postdoctoral supervisor was Walter H. Stockmayer at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. Genia worked at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. In 1956 they moved to

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

so that he could become an instructor at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. He was later promoted to Assistant Professor (1957), Associate Professor (1962) and full Professor (1965) of

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...

. Genia paused her scientific pursuits to raise four children. In the 1980s she resumed her career and became a Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at Cornell where she was honored for her teaching contributions.

Research

Albrecht is most well known for his work on the theory of resonance Raman

scattering In physics, scattering is a wide range of physical processes where moving particles or radiation of some form, such as light or sound, are forced to deviate from a straight trajectory by localized non-uniformities (including particles and radiat ...

intensities. He developed two of the main methods for analyzing Raman enhancement patterns. The first of these is the sum-over-states method, developed in the 1960s. After the development of the competing time-dependent

wavepacket In physics, a wave packet (also known as a wave train or wave group) is a short burst of localized wave action that travels as a unit, outlined by an envelope. A wave packet can be analyzed into, or can be synthesized from, a potentially-infini ...

method by Lee and Heller, Albrecht's group developed the transform theory of resonance Raman enhancement. Other notable research developments by his group research include

thermal lensing Thermal blooming or thermal lensing occurs when high-energy laser beams propagate through a medium. It is the result of nonlinear interactions that occur when the medium (e.g. air or glass) is heated by absorbing a fraction of the radiation, causi ...

spectroscopy, and the concept of local molecular vibrational modes.

Awards and achievements

Andreas Albrecht had many achievements and belonged to many scientific societies. He also had several visiting professorships. In 1986 he was given the New York Academy of Science Polychrome Corporation Award in Photochemistry, in 1988 the Lippincott-Medal and in 1990 the Earle K. Plyler Prize from the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

. In 1992 he joined the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

. A special issue of ''

The Journal of Physical Chemistry A ''The Journal of Physical Chemistry A'' is a scientific journal which reports research on the chemistry of molecules - including their dynamics, spectroscopy, kinetics, structure, chemical bond, bonding, and quantum chemistry. It is published wee ...

'' was dedicated to him after his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albrecht, Andreas 1927 births 2002 deaths Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Cornell University faculty 20th-century American chemists American spectroscopists Fellows of the American Physical Society Chemists from California