Robert L. Wolke

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Robert L. Wolke received his B.S. in Chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now Polytechnic Institute of N.Y.U.) and his Ph.D. in Nuclear Chemistry from Cornell University. He has taught chemistry(in Spanish)at the University of Puerto Rico and the Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela, and is now professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh.

His books include Impact: Science on Society; Chemistry Explained; What Einstein Didn't Know; What Einstein Told His Barber; What Einstein Told His cook (nominated for both the James Beard Foundation's and the IACP's awards for best technical or reference book), and What Einstein Told His Cook 2 (also James Beard and IACP nominees). Further Adventures in Kitchen Science. His four "Einstein" books have been translated into more than 20 languages.

From1998 to 2007 he wrote a food science column (Food 101) for the Washington Post. His journalism awards include the James Beard Foundation's award for best newspaper column, the IACP's Bert Greene Award for best newspaper food writing, plus several awards from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. In 2005 he won the American Chemical Society's Grady-Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public.

His extracurricular activities have included stand-up comic monologues and consulting for UNESCO in Bangladesh.

He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Marlene Parrish, a food journalist, in Pittsburgh, PA.