Sir Paul Edward Pieris (1874–1955) was a civil servant and historian, and the leading authority of his generation on the European period in Sri Lankan history.
He was the first Ceylonese to be placed first in the Ceylon Civil Service examination, and served as a Government Agent and later on the bench. Alongside his official career he worked from Portuguese and Dutch archival sources, and his Ceylon: The Portuguese Era and related volumes established the documentary basis for the study of the period.
He also carried out early archaeological work on the Nagadipa and Kantarodai sites in the north, and argued for the antiquity of Buddhist settlement in the Jaffna peninsula.