| Robert Edward Bell | |
| Office: | 12th Principal of McGill University |
| Term Start: | 1970 |
| Term End: | 1979 |
| Birth Date: | 29 November 1918 |
| Birth Place: | New Malden, England |
| Death Place: | Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Predecessor: | Rocke Robertson |
| Successor: | David Johnston |
| Alma Mater: | University of British Columbia McGill University |
| Profession: | Nuclear physicist |
Robert Edward Bell [1] (November 29, 1918 – April 1, 1992) was a Canadian nuclear physicist and principal of McGill University from 1970 to 1979.
Born in New Malden, England to Canadian parents, he was raised in Ladner, British Columbia. He received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and physics in 1939 and a M.A. in physics in 1941 from the University of British Columbia. During World War II he researched VHF, UHF radar and microwave antennas for military purposes at the National Research Council Laboratories in Ottawa. After the war, from 1946 to 1952, he worked at the Chalk River Nuclear Energy Laboratory in Ontario in nuclear physics research and received a PhD degree in physics from McGill University in 1948.
Between 1956 and 1960 he was an associate professor at McGill University. From 1958 to 1959 he worked in Copenhagen, Denmark at the Niels Bohr Institute. In 1960 he was named Rutherford Professor of Physics and Director of the Foster Radiation Laboratory at McGill. Between 1964 and 1967 he was Vice-Dean for Physical Sciences. In 1969 he became Dean of Graduate Studies and Research and in 1970 he was appointed Principal and Vice-Chancellor. In 1979 he returned to the Physics Department leaving McGill in 1983. From 1978 until 1981, he was president of the Royal Society of Canada. From 1981 to 1990 he was a Canadian delegate to the science council of NATO.