George Fownes (May 14, 1815 - January 31, 1849) was an English chemist. He attended the Palace School in Enfield. From 1842 he was chemistry professor at the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and from 1846 at University College, London. In 1844, he published a chemistry textbook. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1845, but that same year resigned from his academic positions due to ill health. For his researches in organic chemistry, he was awarded the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1847. He spent time in Barbados from 1847, in an attempt to treat the pulmonary disease afflicting him, but, on his return to England in 1848, he caught a cold and died at the age of 34.