James Cuffey (October 8, 1911 – May 30, 1999) was an American astronomer. He specialized in photoelectric photometry and held the patent on the Cuffey Iris Photometer, an instrument used in stellar photographic photometry.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Cuffey became a graduate student at Northwestern University in 1934, then went on to Harvard University as a doctoral student under Harlow Shapley. He received his Ph.D.