Howard Earle Petch, OBC FRSC (born 12 May 1925) is a Canadian academic administrator. He was the President of the University of Waterloo and the University of Victoria.He received a Bachelor of Science, honours in physics and chemistry from McMaster University in 1949. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of British Columbia in 1952. He joined the department of physics at McMaster University in 1954.