John Smith (1721–1797) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

physician and academic. Smith was born in Maybole, Scotland, where his father, William, was a merchant... He studied at the University of Glasgow beginning in 1736, entered

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

in 1744 with the support of the Snell Exhibition, and earned a B.A. in 1748 and an M.A. in 1751 from Balliol. He then studied under Nathan Alcock in

St Mary Hall St Mary Hall was a medieval academic hall of the University of Oxford. It was associated with Oriel College from 1326 to 1545, but functioned independently from 1545 until it was incorporated into Oriel College in 1902. History In 1320, ...

, earning his doctorate in 1757.. Alcock left Oxford for Bath in the same year, and Smith took his place.. At Oxford, he taught anatomy and

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

. Despite not being a mathematician, he held the

Savilian chair of geometry The position of Savilian Professor of Geometry was established at the University of Oxford in 1619. It was founded (at the same time as the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy) by Sir Henry Savile, a mathematician and classical scholar who was ...

from 1766 until his death in 1797..

References

1721 births 1797 deaths Savilian Professors of Geometry 18th-century Scottish people Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford {{Scotland-academic-bio-stub