Wilhelm August Julius Albert (24 January 1787 – 4 July 1846) was a German engineer and mining administrator, best remembered as the first person to record observations of metal fatigue. Albert was born in Hanover and showed early talent as a musician before embarking on the study of law in Göttingen in 1803. Experience in the Harz mountains awakened an interest in mining and, in 1806, he was appointed to the Mining and Forestry Office in Clausthal. By 1836 he was directing the entire mining industry of the Harz region. He died in Clausthal.