Alan Hildreth Barrett was born in Springfield MA in 1927 and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University in 1950, then went on to Columbia University, where he did graduate work in physics under Charles Townes. He received his PhD in 1956 for a study of the microwave spectrum of the halides of indium and gallium. In 1961 Barrett joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty as Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, was appointed Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1965, and Professor of Physics in 1967. Barrett retired from MIT in 1987. He was also the Jansky Lecturer at National Radio Astronomy Observatory in 1990.