Professor John James Nolan (28 December 1888 – 18 April 1952) was an Irish physicist who served as President of the Royal Irish Academy from 1949 to 1952. He was born near Omagh, County Tyrone and educated at University College Dublin. After graduation in 1909 he carried out research in the Physics Department under Professor John A. McClelland on the electrical charge of rain. He was awarded D.Sc in 1917. In 1950, Nolan successfully nominated Cecil Powell for the Nobel Prize in Physics. Five year earlier, he had nominated Patrick Blackett, who became a Nobel laureate in 1948.