John Torrence Tate Sr. (July 28, 1889 – May 27, 1950) was an American physicist noted for his editorship of Physical Review between 1926 and 1950.

He departed for Germany to further his studies, earning a PhD under James Franck in 1914, with a dissertation on "The Heat of Vaporization of Metals".

[1][2] While a professor at the University of Minnesota, Tate presided over the growth of the Physical Review into a high impact journal.

Physicist John H. Van Vleck, who was a colleague of Tate's at Minnesota from 1923 to 1928, recalled that in the early 20th century "The Physical Review was only so-so, especially in theory, and in 1922 I was greatly pleased that my doctor's thesis was accepted for publication by the Philosophical Magazine in England .

[2] On June 1, 1936, Tate, as the editor of the Physical Review, received a submission from Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen.