Dr. John Van Nostrand Dorr (1872–1962) was an industrial chemist active in early to middle twentieth century. He was born in 1872 in Newark, New Jersey. He worked with Thomas Edison before attending Rutgers University, from which he obtained a B.S. in chemistry in 1894. Dorr was awarded the Franklin Institute's John Scott Medal in 1916, the Chemical Industry Medal in 1938, and the Perkin Medal by the Society of Chemical Industry in 1941. He was the benefactor of several major philanthropies, as well as founding his own charity, the .