Barbara Ruth Albert (born 9 December 1966) is a German chemist and rector of the University of Duisburg-Essen.

[1] Albert studied Chemistry at the University of Bonn from 1985 to 1990.

She worked on her dissertation in the group of Martin Jansen [de] until 1995.

With the help of the Feodor Lynen Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Materials Research Laboratory of the University of California, Santa Barbara in the group of Anthony Cheetham.

In the same year she became a professor at the University of Hamburg, where she was also Managing Director of the Institute for Inorganic and Applied Chemistry from 2003 to 2005.