Joseph Lovering (25 December 1813 – 18 January 1892) was an American scientist and educator.

In 1838, he was named Hollis Professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Harvard.

He was director of Jefferson Physical Laboratory from 1884 to 1888, and was associated with the Harvard College Observatory, especially in the joint observations of the United States and the London Royal Society on terrestrial magnetism.

In 1837, several Yale professors - Denison Olmsted, Alexander Twining, Elias Loomis, along with Edward Herrick had published papers supporting the existence of an annual meteor storm in August (which peaks around the 9th/10th of the month).

Instead, he said, "meteoritic appearances are much more common every night than has been imagined" and "no season of the year is especially provided : that about the same average number can be seen every fair night... an equal and uniform distribution of meteors throughout the year".