Walter J. Kauzmann (18 August 1916 – 27 January 2009) was an American chemist and professor emeritus of Princeton University.

His most important contribution was recognizing that the hydrophobic effect plays a key role in determining the three-dimensional structure of proteins.

Albert operated a gem-importing business in Lower Manhattan and would often bring his son to work on Saturday mornings.

They would spend the afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History or attend a matinee at the Metropolitan Opera, nurturing Walter's lifelong love of science and music.

Following his Ph.D., Kauzmann had a two-year postdoctoral appointment in Pittsburgh as a Westinghouse Research Fellow, in the laboratory led by Edward U. Condon.

[2] At the end of this fellowship, with the U.S. fighting WWII, Kauzmann joined the U.S. government's National Defense Research Council laboratory in Bruceton, Pennsylvania, which was directed by George Kistiakowsky, and worked on chemical explosives.

With David Eisenberg, a former postdoctoral fellow of Kauzmann, he wrote The Structure and Properties of Water (1969), a book reissued in 2005 by Oxford University Press as part of its Classic Texts in the Physical Sciences series.

They summered on Cape Breton Island, and eventually donated 40 acres (160,000 m2) of their property to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust.