John Augustine Zahm (pseudonym H. J. Mozans), CSC (June 14, 1851 – November 10, 1921) was a Holy Cross priest, author, scientist, and explorer of South America.

Zahm initially attended a one-room schoolhouse in Logan, with Januarius MacGahan being one of his classmates, before the family moved to Huntington, Indiana from where he learned of the University of Notre Dame.

[5] Zahm championed the view of Notre Dame becoming a research university dedicated to scholarship, which was at odds with Andrew Morrissey, who hoped to keep the institution a smaller boarding school.

[5] Zahm fought through writing and used his detailed background in science to defend the ability of God and the Catholic faith to remain in the scientific sphere.

After the Vatican decided to censure the book in 1898, Zahm fully accepted this rebuttal and pulled away from any writing concerning the relationship of theology and science.

[12] Zahm planned a book on historical and archaeological study of the Holy Land, but died of bronchial pneumonia in a Munich hospital en route to the Middle East.