George Kimball Burgess (January 4, 1874 – July 2, 1932) was an American physicist, considered one of the most notable scientists of his era.

He authored and translated numerous studies, was a leading member and president of many scientific societies and, for the last nine years of his life, served as the second director of the National Bureau of Standards.

During his time in Paris, he met and married Suzanne Babut and, following his return to the U.S., served as physics instructor at MIT and at the universities of Michigan and California.

Besides translating Henry Louis Le Chatelier's High Temperature Measurements (1901), and Pierre Duhem's Thermodynamics and Chemistry, he published his 1901 French-language dissertation, Recherches sur la constante de gravitation as well as Experimental Physics, Freshman Course (1902), The Measurement of High Temperatures (with Le Chatelier, 1911; third edition, revised, 1912) and A Micropyrometer (1913).

He was renowned as a top expert in metallurgy and, during World War I, developed, with other scientists, multiple instruments for military use, including those designed for camouflage, radio communication and aeronautics.