Joel L. Sussman (born September 24, 1943) is an Israeli crystallographer best known for his studies on acetylcholinesterase, a key protein involved in transmission of nerve signals.

In 1994–99, he was also the director of the Protein Data Bank (PDB) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Sussman was a pioneer of macromolecular refinement, developing CORELS and applying it to yeast tRNAphe.

[3] Sussman's current research focuses on nervous system proteins, especially acetylcholinesterase (AChE), whose 3D structure was first determined in his lab.

This structure revealed: He has investigated the molecular basis as to how proteins function under extreme conditions [8][9] with unexpected implications for kidney diseases.