Jerome Karle, born Jerome Karfunkel (born June 18, 1918) is an American Jewish physical chemist. Jointly with Herbert A. Hauptman, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985, for the direct analysis of crystal structures using X-ray scattering techniques.

He attended Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, and would later join Arthur Kornberg (awarded the Nobel in Medicine in 1959) and Paul Berg (a winner in Chemistry in 1980), as graduates of the school to win Nobel Prizes.
He started college at the age of 15 and received his bachelor's degree from the City College of New York in 1937. He earned a master's degree from Harvard University in 1938, having majored in biology.
He enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1940 and met his future wife, Isabella Lugoski, who was sitting at an adjoining desk during his first course in physical chemistry; The two married in 1942. Though he completed his studies in 1943, he was awarded his Ph.D. the following year.