Robert Earl Richardson (28 November 1877 – 14 April 1935) was an American aquatic biologist and ichthyologist.
His father was Robert and his mother was Emily Dickerson Richardson.
He was a collaborator of David Starr Jordan and, as his co-author, wrote a series of scientific papers on the fishes of Formosa, the Philippines and Japan.
In 1909, he took charge of the floating laboratory ran by the Natural History Survey on the Illinois River.
His main contribution to ichthyology was The Fishes of Illinois, co-authored with Stephen Alfred Forbes.