Austin Gerard Smith

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

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.[2]

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]