Henry Andrews Bumstead (March 12, 1870 – December 31, 1920) was an American physicist who taught at Yale from 1897 to 1920.

In 1891 he obtained the bachelor's degree and continued at Johns Hopkins as an assistant in the physics laboratory and a graduate student.

Henry Bumstead became an instructor at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University in 1893, working with Charles S. Hastings.

At the same time he became a student of Willard Gibbs, learning vector analysis and continuing the study of thermodynamics and the electromagnetic theory of light.

In World War I Bumstead was selected to serve as the head of the Scientific Section in London under Admiral William Sims, Commander of the American Forces countering the U-boat campaign in the North Atlantic:[3] In 1920 Bumstead was elected Chairman of the National Research Council.