Herbert Goldstein (June 26, 1922 – January 12, 2005) was an American physicist and the author of the standard graduate textbook Classical Mechanics.

He received a B.S. from City College of New York in 1940 and a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943.

From 1942 to 1946, Goldstein was a staff member of the wartime Radiation Laboratory at M.I.T., where he engaged in research on the theory of waveguides and magnetrons and on the characteristics of radar echoes. He was an instructor in the Physics Department at Harvard University from 1946 to 1949. In 1949–50 he was an AEC postdoctoral Fellow at M.I.T., and served as a Visiting Associate Professor of Physics at Brandeis University, 1952–53. From 1950, Goldstein was a Senior Physicist at Nuclear Development Corporation of America, where he directed theoretical research on the shielding of nuclear reactors and on neutron cross sections of interest for reactor design.

From 1961 Goldstein was a professor of nuclear science and engineering at Columbia University. At the time of his death he was professor emeritus. Goldstein won the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award in 1962 for his "contributions to reactor physics and to nuclear cross sections, and for his leadership in establishing a rational scientific basis for nuclear shield design". He was a founding member and served as president of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists. He was buried in Israel.

Books

H. Goldstein, Classical Mechanics
H. Goldstein, Fundamental Aspects of Reactor Shielding
H. Goldstein, Classical Mechanics (2nd Edition)
H. Goldstein, C. P. Poole, J. L. Safko, Classical Mechanics (3rd Edition)