John Arthur Woollam (born 10 August 1939) is an American educator, research physicist, electrical engineer, and George Holmes Distinguished Professor at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. He is also a successful entrepreneur who in 1987 founded the J.A. Woollam Co., an ellipsometry company based in Lincoln, Nebraska, and a world leader in the research, development, and commercialization of ellipsometry instruments. Woollam is also a known as a philanthropist and nature conservationist.