Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Fellowships are funded from the University's residual share of Herchel Smith’s estate. These prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowships attract the very best young researchers to Cambridge. Each year the Univeristy offers between 7 and 8 awards to the outstanding researchers in the areas of biological and physical sciences.

The Fund Managers try to ensure that the terms and conditions of the awards match other leading UK Research Fellowships. It is important to the Fund Managers that Herchel Smith Fellows have the best Cambridge experience and try to arrange links with Colleges so that Fellows enjoy the benefits of access to inter-department contacts and college facilities.

The fields in which the Fellowships can be advertised fall mainly within the University's Schools of the Biological Sciences and the Physical Sciences in view of Dr Smith’s stipulation that the awards should be in the fields of Pure Mathematics, Physics, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry or Molecular Biology and related fields in the Experimental Sciences. The Schools determine each year the fields in which awards should be advertised and the Managers determine the number of Fellowships to be awarded in these areas depending on the strength of the field of applications.