James Reed Holton (1938–2004) was a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.

He was a specialist on atmospheric dynamics, and the author of the atmospheric science textbook An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology.

He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

The American Geophysical Union has now named an award after him, named the James R. Holton award [1]).

This article about an American scientist is a stub.