Robert Franklin Mehl (March 30, 1898 – January 29, 1976) was an American metallurgist.Mehl was noted for transforming of nineteenth-century metallurgy into the modern materials science.He was the founder and the head of a division of Physical metallurgy at the Naval Research Laboratory and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.The American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers established a gold medal award in his name in 1973.