British civil engineer best known for researches in ship design. He designed the first seagoing battleship built entirely of iron.

A graduate of the University of Glasgow (at age 16), Russell became professor of natural philosophy in 1832 at the University of Edinburgh, where he first began his research into the nature of water waves and their effects on hulls. His subsequent employment at Scottish shipbuilding works produced new hull designs based on his researches. Moving to London (1844), he became a shipbuilder on the Thames, designing or codesigning many ships, including the Great Eastern (1856) and HMS Warrior (1860), the world's first wholly ironclad battleship. He wrote several books, including On the Nature, Properties, and Applications of Steam, and on Steam Navigation (1841) and The Modern System of Naval Architecture, 3 vol. (1864–65).