James Henry Smart (June 30, 1841 – February 21, 1900) was an American educator and administrator who served as the fourth president of Purdue University from August 23, 1883, until his death in 1900.

That same year, the Indiana General Assembly approved funds for the erection of a new building for the School of Mechanical Engineering.

Though engineering and agricultural subjects were the main interests of the university as a land-grant institution, the School of Pharmacy was established in 1884 under Smart's leadership.

In 1888, a separate school of electrical engineering was organized under Dr. Louis Bell; the following year the General Assembly approved funds for a laboratory building.

[4] Under Smart's leadership, the school prospered despite his failing health, with the student body growing from just under one hundred to almost one thousand.

Smart died of natural causes on February 21, 1900, aged 58, and is buried in Spring Vale Cemetery in Lafayette, Indiana.