The Waynflete Professorships are four professorial fellowships at the University of Oxford endowed by Magdalen College and named in honour of the college founder William of Waynflete, who had a great interest in science. These professorships are statutory professorships of the University, that is, they are professorships established in the university's regulations, and which are by those regulations attached to Magdalen College in particular. The oldest professorship is the Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy. The three science professorships were created following the recommendation of the University Commission in 1857, in recognition of William of Waynflete's lifetime support of science. The professorships are the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry, the Waynflete Professor of Physiology, and the Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics.
This Waynflete Professorship is one of five statutory professorships in philosophy at the University of Oxford, the other four being the Wykeham Professorship in Logic, the White’s Professorship of Moral Philosophy, the Wilde Professor of Mental Philosophy, as well as the untitled professorship in Ancient Philosophy.
The four heads of the Dyson Perrins Laboratory were four consecutive Waynflete Professors of Chemistry, from its foundation in 1916 as the University's research centre for organic chemistry to its relocation in 2003.