Aleksander Adolfovich Burba (Russian: Алекса́ндр Адо́льфович Бу́рба, IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ɐˈdolʲfəvʲɪdʑ ˈburbə] ⓘ; 6 August 1918 – 5 October 1984) was a Soviet organizer of industry and education, scholar of chemical and metallurgical technologies, and university professor.

His father was awarded a silver pocket watch on behalf of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II with the engraving: "To the best weighman in Russia".

While studying, he worked from 1937 until 1939 as a teacher of chemistry at the Courses of Industrial Masters in Rostov-on-Don, and, from 1940, as a research assistant at the Hydrochemical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Novocherkassk, Rostov Oblast.

After the beginning of the German-Soviet period of World War II, Burba was ordered to join the defense-connected enterprise in the town of Mednogorsk, Chkalov (now Orenburg) Oblast.

In 1980 Burba obtained the academic title of Professor in the Department of Chemistry from the Higher Attestation Commission under the USSR Council of Ministers.

Burba obtained 29 author's certificates (a form of inventor's recognition formerly available in the USSR) for his inventions in industrial technology.

In 1956–1960, Burba played a key role in the development of chemical and metallurgical technology for the extraction of germanium and other rare metals.

For the first time in the Soviet Union the production of germanium concentrate from metallurgical dust and coal ashes was launched on an industrial scale.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and until the early 2010s the Mednogorsk Copper-Sulfur Plant was the only producer of germanium concentrate in Russia.