allen joseph bard (born december 18, 1933) is an american chemist. he is the hackerman-welch regents chair professor 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 the scanning electrochemical microscope, his co-discovery of electrochemiluminescence, his key contributions to photoelectrochemistry of semiconductor electrodes, and co-authoring a seminal textbook.