Melvin Hochster (born August 2, 1943) is an American mathematician working in commutative algebra.

[2] He earned his Ph.D. in 1967 from Princeton University, where he wrote a dissertation under Goro Shimura characterizing the prime spectra of commutative rings.

Hochster's work is primarily in commutative algebra, especially the study of modules over local rings.

His best-known work is on the homological conjectures, many of which he established for local rings containing a field, thanks to his proof of the existence of big Cohen–Macaulay modules and his technique of reduction to prime characteristic.

In 2008, on the occasion of his 65th birthday, he was honored with a conference in Ann Arbor and with a special volume of the Michigan Mathematical Journal.