[5] While Kohler wrote his dissertation on the biochemistry of beta-amyrin, he increasingly turned to topics in the history of science.
At the University of Pennsylvania, he gained an international reputation for his research on the history of genetics and biochemistry, as well as the sociology of American science.
In his work in 1971/72, he dealt with the background and reception of the discovery of cell-free fermentation by Eduard Buchner, winner of the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
[6] A similar sociological interest led him to investigate the funding mechanisms in the shaping of American science.
[5] Robert E. Kohler was and advisory editor from 1984 to 2011 for Social Studies of Science, from 1987 to 1992 for Isis, and from 1991 to 2001 of the Journal of the History of Biology.