Johann Friedrich Gmelin (August 8, 1748 - November 1, 1804) was a German naturalist and botanist.

Gmelin was appointed professor of medicine in Tübingen in 1772, and in 1775 accepted the chair of medicine and chemistry at Göttingen. In 1788 he published the 13th edition of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae with many additions and alterations.

He was the father of the chemist Leopold Gmelin.