Prof Smith graduated with bachelors, masters and PhD degrees from the University of Bradford in the UK. He has extensive industrial experience with Rohm & Haas in process investigation, production and process design, and with ICI in process modelling and process integration. He has acted extensively as a consultant in process integration projects. He has published widely in the field of process integration and is author of Chemical Process Design and Integration, published in 2005 by Wiley.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of The Institution of Chemical Engineers, a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Scientist. His main research interests include the design of reaction and separation systems, design of distillation systems, site utility systems, cleaner production and water system design.