Allen Joseph Bard is an American chemist. He is the Hackerman-Welch Regents Chair Profestry and director of the Center for Electrochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. Bard is considered a “father of modern electrochemistry" for his innovative work developing thescanning electrochemical microscope, his co-discovery of electrochemiluminescence, his key contributions to photoelectrochemistry of semiconductor electrodes, and co-authoring a seminal textbook.

Allen J. Bard was born in New York City on December 18, 1933. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and graduated from the City College of New York in 1955. He then attended Harvard University, where he earned a Masters (1956) and a PhD (1958). He received the National Medal Of Science in 2011.