The Herchel Smith Professorship of Pure Mathematics is a professorship in pure mathematics

Pure mathematics

Broadly speaking, pure mathematics is mathematics which studies entirely abstract concepts. From the eighteenth century onwards, this was a recognized category of mathematical activity, sometimes characterized as speculative mathematics, and at variance with the trend towards meeting the needs of...

 at the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

. It was established in 2004 by a benefaction from Herchel Smith

Herchel Smith

Herchel Smith was an Anglo-American organic chemist. His discoveries include the key inventions underlying oral and injectable contraceptives. In later life, he was a major benefactor to university science....

 "of £14.315m, to be divided into five equal parts, to support the full endowment of five Professorships in the fields of Pure Mathematics, Physics, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Molecular Genetics." When the position was advertised in 2004, the salary offered was £52,936 (or greater), being the minimum professorial stipend, and the first holder was expected to focus on mathematical analysis

Mathematical analysis

Mathematical analysis, which mathematicians refer to simply as analysis, has its beginnings in the rigorous formulation of infinitesimal calculus. It is a branch of pure mathematics that includes the theories of differentiation, integration and measure, limits, infinite series, and analytic functions...

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