Austin Gerard Smith (born 1960) is a professor at the University of Exeter and director of its Living Systems Institute.^[3] He is notable for his pioneering work on the biology of embryonic stem cells.^[4][5]

Education

Austin Smith obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1986.^[6][7]

Career and research

He then carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, before joining the Centre for Genome Research at the University of Edinburgh as a group leader.^[6] In 1996, he was appointed director of the centre, which became the Institute for Stem Cell Research under his leadership.^[6] He remained as director of the Institute until his move to Cambridge in 2006.^[8] Here, he became a director of the Welcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research ^[9] and later was the director of the new Wellcome Trust-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute at the University of Cambridge, which was established with 8 million pounds ($12.5 million) awarded by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council (UK) in 2012.^[10]

In 2019, he was appointed as the new Director of the University of Exeter's Living Systems Institute.^[3]

In 2003, Smith was awarded an MRC Research Professorship^[6] and elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.^[11] And in 2006, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.^[12] In 2010, he was co-recipient of the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine along with French cardiologist Michel Haissaguerre.^[1]

In February 2010, together with 13 other leading stem cell researchers, he wrote an open letter to journal editors to voice the opinion that obstructive reviews by a small number of researchers in the field were hindering publication of novel stem cell research.^[13][14]