Austin Levy Wahrhaftig (May 5, 1917 – November 11, 1997) was an American chemist and mass spectrometrist known for his development of the quasi-equilibrium theory of fragmentation of molecular ions.
[1] The Wahrhaftig diagram that illustrates the relationship between internal energy and unimolecular ion decomposition is named after him.
He attended the University of California, Berkeley where he did undergraduate research with Joel Hildebrand and received an A.B.
He went to graduate school at the California Institute of Technology where he worked under Richard M. Badger and Verner Schomaker .
Wahrhaftig joined the faculty at the Chemistry Department at the University of Utah in 1947 where he rose through the ranks and spent the rest of his career.