He was appointed Professor of Architectural History in 1996.
He has BA and MPhil degrees from Nottingham University in art history, an MA in German from Leeds University, and a Cambridge PhD.
His books include ‘Bruno Taut and the Architecture of Activism’ (Cambridge University Press, 1982; paperback 2010), ‘The Crystal Chain Letters: Architectural Fantasies by Bruno Taut and his Circle’ (MIT Press, 1985), ‘Hendrik Petrus Berlage on Style 1886-1909’ (Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities) and ‘Modernity and the Spirit of the City’ (Routledge, 2003).
Among his recent publications are ‘Beyond the Finite: The Sublime in Art and Science’ (Oxford University Press, 2011, co-edited with Roald Hoffmann, 1981 Nobel Prize for Chemistry laureate), and ‘Metropolis Berlin: 1880-1940’ (University of California Press, 2012).
Active over many years as a translator, he launched the e-journal ‘Art in Translation’ (Bloomsbury) in 2009.
A former Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung and a Getty Scholar, Professor Whyte was co-curator of the Council of Europe exhibition Art and Power, shown in London, Barcelona and Berlin in 1996-97.
He has served as a Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and currently Chair of the International Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art ( RIHA).