| Robert Elderfield | |
| Birth Date: | 30 May 1904 |
| Birth Place: | Niagara Falls, New York, US |
| Death Place: | Ann Arbor, Michigan, US |
| Field: | Chemist |
| Work Institution: | Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, Columbia University, University of Michigan |
| Alma Mater: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Michigan |
| Thesis Url: | http://library.mit.edu/item/000808517 |
| Thesis Title: | Alkyl guanidines and nitroguanidines |
| Thesis Year: | 1930 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Tenney Lombard Davis |
| Doctoral Students: | William Standish Knowles Josef Fried Elkan Blout |
| Notable Students: | Isaac Asimov (post-doctoral) |
Robert Cooley Elderfield (May 30, 1904 - December 10, 1979) was an American chemist. He was born in Niagara Falls, New York, United States.
He studied at the Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, later at the University of Michigan receiving his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1930. He worked at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research from 1930 till 1936 when he changed to Columbia University. He was moved to University of Michigan in 1952.
He started his research with cardiac glycosides and cardiac aglycones shifting to the synthesis of primaquine and other antimalarials; at the end he did some research in new anticancer agents