Kennedy Joseph Previté-Orton (21 January 1872 – 16 March 1930) was a British chemist who became a lecturer and demonstrator at St Bartholomew's Hospital and then became a professor at Bangor.

[2] He then obtained a Ph.D. summa cum laude in Heidelberg under Karl von Auwers, before working for a year with Sir William Ramsey at University College, London.

He was then lecturer and demonstrator of Chemistry at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, working under F. D. Chattaway (1860–1944) who would inspire much of his subsequent research.

In 1903 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at University College of North Wales, Bangor, where he headed the department until his death.

His collaborators and students included Herbert Ben Watson (1894–1975), Alan Edwin Bradfield (1897–1953), Edward David Hughes (1906–1963), Brynmor Jones (1903–1989), Gwyn Williams (1904–1955), and Frederick George Soper (1898–1982).