Houman Younessi (b. May 28, 1963) is an Iranian-Australian educator, practitioner, consultant and investigator in computer science, information systems, and systems and software engineering. He is currently Chair of at the Hartford Graduate Campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Hartford, CT, USA, where he is also director of the Rensselaer Initiative in Software Engineering (RISE), a center dedicated to advanced software engineering research. He has previously been associated with Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.

Professor Younessi is recognized world-wide for his expansive work in the fields of defect management, software and system development processes and is a pioneering authority in object-oriented computing. Examples of his work include the OPEN and the SBM methodologies and more recently . Many of professor Younessi's innovations have been put to use in major commercial and defense systems

Apart from computer science, systems and software engineering, Younessi has interests in molecular biology, medical genetics and bioinformatics. He is known for his activist politics, his support of environmentalist causes, anti-racism initatives, and civil rights. He has written several books, chapters in books, and many tens of research articles in his various areas of professional interest. He is also an accomplished Persian language poet and essayist. He is heavily influenced in his life by Vedanta Hindu philosophy and the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Bhagawan Ramakrishna.

He lives in South Windsor, Connecticut, with his wife Sheyda, a health industry executive; and his son Daniel, a student at the University of Connecticut

See also

• Modern Iranian scientists and engineers
• List of Hindus