physics

Réka Albert

Réka Albert is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Réka Albert rather than just read about it. In short: Réka Albert (born 2 March 1972) is a Romanian-Hungarian scientist. She is a distinguished professor of physics and adjunct professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University and is noted for the Barabási–Albert model and research into scale-free networks and Boolean modeling of biological systems.

Key takeaways

Réka Albert belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Réka Albert to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Réka Albert from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Réka Albert (born 2 March 1972) is a Romanian-Hungarian scientist. She is a distinguished professor of physics and adjunct professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University and is noted for the Barabási–Albert model and research into scale-free networks and Boolean modeling of biological systems. She was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2025.

Education Albert was born in Reghin, a city in Mureș County, located in the historical region of Transylvania, in the north-central part of Romania. She obtained her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 1995 and 1996, respectively. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame in 2001.

Work Albert is co-creator, together with Albert-László Barabási, of the Barabási–Albert model for generating scale-free random graphs via preferential attachment (see Barabási–Albert model). Her work extends to networks in a very general sense, involving for instance investigations on the error tolerance and attack vulnerability of complex networks and its applications to the vulnerability of the North American power grid. Her current research focuses on dynamic modeling of biological networks and systems biology.

Awards Albert was selected as a Sloan Research Fellow in 2004 and was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2007. She was named Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2010. One year later she received the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award. In 2016 she was inducted as an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She was elected Fellow of the Network Science Society in 2018 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2019.

Selected publications Albert R., Barabási A.-L.: Statistical mechanics of complex networks, Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 74, Nr. 1, pp. 47–97, 2002, doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.74.47, arXiv:cond-mat/0106096v1 (submitted 6 June 2001) Jeong H., Tombor B., Albert R., Oltvai Z.N., Barabási A.-L.: The large-scale organization of metabolic networks, Nature 407, pp. 651–654, 2000, doi:10.1038/35036627 arXiv:cond-mat/0010278 (submitted 19 October 2000) Albert R., Jeong H., Barabási A.-L.: Error and attack tolerance of complex networks, Nature 406, pp. 378–382, 2000, doi:10.1038/35019019, arXiv:cond-mat/0008064v1 (submitted 3 August 2000) Barabási A.-L., Albert R.: Emergence of scaling in random networks, Science, Vol. 286, Nr. 5439, pp. 509–12, 15 October 1999, doi:10.1126/science.286.5439.509, arXiv:cond-mat/9910332v1 (submitted 21 October 1999)

References

External links "Reka Albert at Penn State". "Penn State Profiles: Réka Albert, model researcher".

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Réka Albert

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Réka Albert claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Réka Albert before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Réka Albert ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Réka Albert

In research: Réka Albert appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Réka Albert in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Réka Albert is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1972 births, 21st-century Hungarian biologists, Babeș-Bolyai University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Réka Albert outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Réka Albert in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Réka Albert means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Réka Albert out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Réka Albert in simple terms?

Why does Réka Albert matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Réka Albert?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Réka Albert.