James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairns and Townsville, and it also has study centres in Mount Isa, Mackay and Thursday Island.

The University’s main fields of research include marine sciences, biodiversity, sustainable management of tropical ecosystems, genetics and genomics, tropical health care, tourism and engineering.

As of 2019, JCU has been awarded five stars for job success by the Good Universities Guide. In 2015, JCU Singapore earned the distinction of being the first private education institution to attain the EduTrust Star quality mark from the Singapore Government.

In 2017, JCU was ranked No. 1 in the world for Marine & Freshwater Biology and No. 2 in the world for Biodiversity Conservation. In the Commonwealth Government's Excellence in Research for Australia 2015 National Report, JCU research received the highest ranking of 'well above world standard' (rating 5) in the areas of environmental sciences, geology, physical geography and environmental geoscience, ecology, plant biology, medical microbiology, and neurosciences. JCU was ranked 28th of the world’s universities aged 50 years or under in 2018.