Paul O'Brien CBE FRS FREng FRSC (22 January 1954 – 16 October 2018) was a British chemist. He was professor of Inorganic Materials at the University of Manchester where he was head of the School of Chemistry from 2004 to 2009 and head of the School of Materials from 2011 to 2015.
O'Brien was made Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in January 2016.
O'Brien died on 16 October 2018 at the age of 64.