Thomas James Samson, FBA (born 1946), commonly known as Jim Samson, is a musicologist, music critic and retired academic. Educated at Queen's University Belfast (BMus) and University College, Cardiff (MMus, PhD), he was appointed to a research fellowship at the University of Leicester in 1972. He moved to the University of Exeter in 1973 as a lecturer; promotions followed, to reader in 1987 and Professor of Musicology in 1992. In 1994, he was appointed Stanley Hugh Badock Professor of Music at the University of Bristol, and was then Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, between 2002 and 2011.