Audrey Glauert was born on 21 December 1925, the daughter of Herman Glauert and Muriel Glauert (née Barker). Glauert attended Perse School for Girls and Bedford College (University of London) where she obtained her BSc in 1946 and MSc in 1947. She married David Franks in 1959 (divorced 1979). From 1947-1950 Glauert was an Assistant Lecturer in Physics at Royal Holloway University, following this she was appointed the Sir Halley Stewart Research Fellow at Strangeways Lab, Cambridge, she worked at Strangeways from 1950-1989. During this time (1966-1993) Glauert also held a fellowship at Clare Hall, Cambridge.

Glauert was the first woman to be elected President of the Royal Microscopic Society, a post she held from 1970-1971. Glauert published seminal text books on Electron Microscopy: 'Practical Methods in Electron Microscopy 1972-1999' and 'Biological Specimen Preparation for Transmission Electron Microscopy'.

Audrey Glauert died on 29 July 2014.