Feodor Ivanovich Vilesov (Russian: Фёдор Иванович Вилесов; 13 November 1925 – 8 February 1978) was a Soviet experimental physicist whose main contributions are in the field of chemical  physics.

In 1950 he entered the Department of Physics, Leningrad State University, from which he graduated with an honorable diploma (master's degree) in 1955.

[1] He obtained his Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (a "higher doctorate") degree in 1966 for a thesis on the development of photoelectron spectroscopy in the gas phase and molecular solids entitled: “Photoionization of Organic Molecules”[2] From 1955 to 1978, he worked at the Institute for Physics of the Leningrad State University.

In a series of works in 1960–1962, Vilesov and his colleagues performed the first experiments on Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy (UPS) of molecular solids and gases.

Vilesov was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1985, —for the development of the method of photoelectron spectroscopy and its application in science and technology, published in 1961–1985.