Ignace Jay Gelb (October 14, 1907 – December 22, 1985) was a Polish-American Assyriologist who pioneered the scientific study of writing systems.

This historical typology has been criticized as overly simplistic, forcing the data to fit the model and ignoring exceptional cases.

[citation needed] Gelb's typology has since been refined by Peter T. Daniels and others.

He became editor of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary in 1947 and continued work on the project until his death.

He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1968) and of the British Academy (1978), a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, and in 1975 he was elected as a member of the prestigious American Philosophical Society.