Lloyd M. Smith (born October 3, 1954) is an American professor of

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and the founder of Third Wave Technologies.

Early life

Smith spent his formative years in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, where his parents worked as professors of physics and mathematics. He majored in biochemistry at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

in 1976, performing research with Wayne Hubbell, and subsequently obtained his PhD from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

for his work on membrane diffusion with

Harden M. McConnell Harden M. McConnell (July 18, 1927 – October 8, 2014) was an American physical chemist. His many awards included the National Medal of Science and the Wolf Prize, and he was elected to the National Academy of Science." Education and career Hard ...

Career

In 1982, Smith did post-doctorate work with

Leroy Hood Leroy "Lee" Edward Hood (born October 10, 1938) is an American biologist who has served on the faculties at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Washington. Hood has developed ground-breaking scientific instrumen ...

at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

, where he created the world's first fluorescence-based automated DNA sequencing instrument. During the early 80s he also worked as a consultant for

Applied Biosystems Applied Biosystems is one of various brands under the Life Technologies brand of Thermo Fisher Scientific corporation. The brand is focused on integrated systems for genetic analysis, which include computerized machines and the consumables used ...

, who were able to commercialise the sequencing process he developed and bring it to market. This sequencing process was to have a direct effect on the development of the

Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...

. In 1987, Smith joined the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

as an assistant professor; he subsequently held posts there as chair of the analytical sciences division and director of the university's Genome Center. He has held posts on the boards of Visible Genetics, GWC Technologies, and founded Third Wave Technologies and Gentel BioSciences.

Academic research and publications

Smith has authored or co-authored over 250 papers. He holds over 30 U.S. patents for his inventions in the field of biochemistry. He held the John D. MacArthur Chair in Chemistry at Wisconsin-Madison, and is currently the W. L. Hubbell Professor of Chemistry there. He was listed as one of the Top 100 Innovators by ''

Science Digest ''Science Digest'' was a monthly American magazine published by the Hearst Corporation from 1937 through 1988. History ''Science Digest'' was first published in January 1937 in an 8 x 5 inch digest size format of about 100 pag ...

'', has won a

Presidential Young Investigator Award The Presidential Young Investigator Award (PYI) was awarded by the National Science Foundation of the United States Federal Government. The program operated from 1984 to 1991, and was replaced by the NSF Young Investigator (NYI) Awards and Preside ...

, and has received an

Eli Lilly Eli Lilly (July 8, 1838 – June 6, 1898) was a Union Army officer, pharmacist, chemist, and businessman who founded Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War and recruited a company of men to ...

Analytical Chemistry Award. Because of his work on automated DNA sequencing Smith was awarded the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities Award in 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Lloyd M. 1954 births Living people American biochemists University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty University of California alumni Stanford University alumni People from Berkeley, California