Alton Meister was an American biochemist who made pioneering contributions to the study of glutathionemetabolism. He was born in New York, received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and an MD from Cornell University Medical College. He then moved to the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He remained there until 1955 when he became Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at Tufts University.