Albert L. Allred

Albert Louis Allred (born September 19, 1931 in Mount Airy , North Carolina ) is an American chemist accomplished in the fields of inorganic chemistry and electronegativity .

Allred studied chemistry at the University of North Carolina with a bachelor's degree in 1953, at Harvard University with a master's degree in 1955 and a doctorate in 1957. In 1956 he was an instructor, 1958 assistant professor and 1969 professor at the College of Arts and Sciences of Northwestern University . From, 1980 to 1986 he was chairman of the chemistry department. In 1992 he became acting vice president for research and dean of the graduate school.

In 1987 he was visiting scholar at Cambridge University , in 1965 Honorary Research Associate at University College London and in 1967 at the University of Rome. From 1963 to 1965 he was a Sloan Research Fellow . He has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1981 .

Allred introduced the Allred-Rochow scale of electronegativity with Eugene G. Rochow in 1958. They premeditated that electronegativity, should be related to the charge experienced by an electron on the "surface" of an atom. They calculated this formula for the electronegativity, χ, where " $Z_{\rm {eff}}$" is equal to the effective nuclear charge and "$r_{\rm {cov}}^{2}$" is the covalent radius. When the covalent radius is expressed in picometers:

$\chi =3590{{Z_{\rm {eff}}} \over {r_{\rm {cov}}^{2}}}+0.744$.

When expressed in Angstroms however, the value 3590, becomes .359.

$\chi =.359{{Z_{\rm {eff}}} \over {r_{\rm {cov}}^{2}}}+0.744$

He also since has dealt with synthetic inorganic, organometallic chemistry and electrochemistry.

He since has been married to Nancy Willis since 1958 and has three children.