The position of Linacre Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford was founded in 1860, initially as the Linacre Professorship of Physiology and then as the chair of Human and Comparative Anatomy, although its origins can be traced back a further 300 years, to the Linacre Lectureships at Merton College. The post is attached to a fellowship at Merton.
It is named in honour of Thomas Linacre (1460–1524), Physician to Henry VIII and founder of the Royal College of Physicians.
The Linacre Professor is on the Board of Management for the J.W.Jenkinson Memorial Lectureship.