diff --git a/lib/maintainers.nix b/lib/maintainers.nix
index 86f488993ed6..78de8ca2c445 100644
--- a/lib/maintainers.nix
+++ b/lib/maintainers.nix
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@
   emery = "Emery Hemingway <emery@vfemail.net>";
   epitrochoid = "Mabry Cervin <mpcervin@uncg.edu>";
   ericbmerritt = "Eric Merritt <eric@afiniate.com>";
+  erikryb = "Erik Rybakken <erik.rybakken@math.ntnu.no>";
   ertes = "Ertugrul Söylemez <ertesx@gmx.de>";
   exlevan = "Alexey Levan <exlevan@gmail.com>";
   falsifian = "James Cook <james.cook@utoronto.ca>";
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/math/perseus/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/math/perseus/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..94029a043492
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/math/perseus/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, unzip, gcc48 }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  name = "perseus-4-beta";
+  version = "4-beta";
+  buildInputs = [unzip gcc48];
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~vnanda/source/perseus_4_beta.zip";
+    sha256 = "09brijnqabhgfjlj5wny0bqm5dwqcfkp1x5wif6yzdmqh080jybj";
+  };
+
+  sourceRoot = ".";
+
+  buildPhase = ''
+    g++ Pers.cpp -O3 -o perseus
+  '';
+
+  installPhase = ''
+    mkdir -p $out/bin
+    cp perseus $out/bin
+  '';
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "The Persistent Homology Software";
+    longDescription = ''
+      Persistent homology - or simply, persistence - is an algebraic
+      topological invariant of a filtered cell complex. Perseus
+      computes this invariant for a wide class of filtrations built
+      around datasets arising from point samples, images, distance
+      matrices and so forth.
+    '';
+    homepage = "www.sas.upenn.edu/~vnanda/perseus/index.html";
+    license = stdenv.lib.licenses.gpl3;
+    maintainers = with stdenv.lib.maintainers; [erikryb];
+    platforms = stdenv.lib.platforms.linux;
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index f1e9db0ed6c1..5ab157304f2c 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -12246,6 +12246,8 @@ let
 
   pencil = callPackage ../applications/graphics/pencil { };
 
+  perseus = callPackage ../applications/science/math/perseus {};  
+
   petrifoo = callPackage ../applications/audio/petrifoo {
     inherit (gnome) libgnomecanvas;
   };