Albert W. Overhauser was an American physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is best known for his theory of dynamic nuclear polarization, also known as the Overhauser Effect. Overhauser was born in San Diego, California, on August 17, 1925. He received his BA, Magna Cum Laude in 1948 and continued at Berkeley to receive his Ph.D. in Physics in 1951. He received the National Medal Of Science in 1994. From 1951 to 1953, he was a post-doctoral student at the University of Illinois, where he developed an important theory on the transfer of spin polarization; once the theory had been confirmed and demonstrated by other scientists, it became known as the Overhauser Effect. He was on the faculty at Cornell University from 1953 to 1958, and then left to join the research staff at Ford Motor Company. Overhauser remained at Ford until 1973, when he joined the faculty at Purdue University. He remained at Purdue as the Stuart Distinguished Professor of Physics for the rest of his career. Overhauser died in 2011 in West Lafayette, Indiana. He was 86.