Robert Edward Bell CC FRS FRSC[1] (November 29, 1918 – April 1, 1992) was a Canadian nuclear physicist and principal of McGill University from 1970 to 1979.
Born in New Malden, England to Canadian parents, he was raised in Ladner, British Columbia.
After the war, from 1946 to 1952, he worked at the Chalk River Nuclear Energy Laboratory in Ontario in nuclear physics research and received a PhD degree in physics from McGill University in 1948.
In 1960 he was named Rutherford Professor of Physics and Director of the Foster Radiation Laboratory at McGill.
In 1969 he became Dean of Graduate Studies and Research and in 1970 he was appointed Principal and Vice-Chancellor.