John Patterson (January 3, 1872 – February 22, 1956) was a Canadian physicist and meteorologist. Born on a farm in Oxford County, Ontario, he was one of thirteen children of Francis Patterson and Annie (Telfer). He matriculated to the University of Toronto, graduating in 1900 with a B.A. in engineering, and was awarded a 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholarship to study physics for his M.A. at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. There he performed studies of thin metallic films and their electrical properties, ionization of the air, and the variation of electrical resistance of metals when exposed to magnetic fields.