Melissa Nobles (born May 13, 1963) is an American political scientist and academic administrator. She is currently Chancellor and Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She previously served as the Kenan Sahin Dean of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science. Nobles' scholarship focuses on the comparative study of racial politics, categorization, violence, and reconciliation.