James Edward Oliver (1829-1895) was an American mathematician known for his role in establishing the mathematics department at Cornell University.
Born in Portland, Maine, Oliver graduated from Harvard College in 1849 and was immediately appointed assistant in the office of the American Nautical Almanac in Cambridge.
He founded the Social Science Club and was a member of the University Ethical Association.
In a similar vein, he taught a popular class in ethics at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca.
Although he was not the first to make such attempts, his particular goal was to define the relation between economics and probability theory.