John Scherer Hougham (28 May 1821 – 31 March 1894), was Purdue University’s first appointed professor, first (unofficial) acting President (March 11, 1874 – June 11, 1874) after Purdue's first President Richard Dale Owen resigned on March 1, 1874, and later an official acting President (November 6, 1875 – April 30, 1876) between the administrations of Abraham C. Shortridge and Emerson E.

[3] During this time he was also a well regarded maker of scientific instruments for educational and professional use in medicine, chemistry, astronomy, and other related fields (e.g., solar compass).

[5] After those appointments, he was Chairman of Philosophy and Agriculture at Kansas State University (1868 – 1872).

He then took an appointment as Professor of Physics and Industrial Mechanics, and Chairman of Agricultural Chemistry at Purdue University (1872 – 1876),[6] serving in those early years of Purdue’s history as an academic "handyman" — and for a time acting President during parts of 1874, '75, and '76 — to John Purdue and the founding Trustees, visiting other universities around the country in search of new ideas and faculty to bring back to his native Indiana.

Around 1876, he returned to Kansas State where he spent the remaining years of his academic career.