Sir Zelman Cowen (7 October 1919 – 8 December 2011) was an Australian legal scholar and university administrator. He served as the 19th Governor-General of Australia from 1977 to 1982, under Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. He was the second Jewish person to be Governor-General of Australia (the first being Sir Isaac Isaacs). He also served as the Provost of Oriel College, Oxford from 1982 to 1990. Before this, he was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England (1966–1970) and the University of Queensland (1970–1977).