In 1959, Kohler graduated from
Yale University with a B.A. summa cum laude in
chemistry. In 1965, he received his Ph.D. in chemistry from
Harvard University. His Ph.D. thesis is entitled
Model studies for the synthesis of β-amyrin. From 1965 to 1970 he remained at Harvard as a research fellow, from 1965 to 1968 at
Harvard Medical School's microbiology department and from 1968 to 1970 at Harvard University's history of science department. From 1970 to 1973 he was assistant director of the
Burndy Library, a library founded in 1941 by
Bern Dibner. In 1973 he joined the faculty of the
University of Pennsylvania's department of history and sociology of science, He taught courses on the history of American science, the history of technology in war,
landscape and
environmental history, and science as a social practice. In 1995 he was a visiting professor at the
University of California, San Diego. A similar sociological interest led him to investigate the funding mechanisms in the shaping of American science. He published the results in several influential articles and in 1991 in the work
Partners in Science: Foundations and Natural Scientists, 1900–1945. In the 2000s he worked on the culture and practice of
biology and
biodiversity, as well as the history of geographical and biological fieldwork. 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. In 2005 he became an advisory editor for
Nature and Culture. He has published 6 books and more than 30 scientific articles. In 2016 he was elected to the board of trustee of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA). ==Personal life==