Dr. Smith, a molecular biologist and policy analyst, is a Senior Associate at the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The Center for Biosecurity is an independent, nonprofit organization that works to affect policy and practice in ways that lessen the illness, death, and civil disruption that would follow large-scale epidemics, whether they occur naturally or result from the use of a biological weapon. Dr. Smith joined the Center for Biosecurity at its founding on November 1, 2003. Prior to this, he was a Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies and an Assistant Scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Smith’s efforts at the Center for Biosecurity focus on improving the supply of medicines, vaccines, and other medical countermeasures (MCMs) for biosecurity threats through promotion of policies to: increase private sector engagement in countermeasure R&D, improve the science and technology of drug and vaccine development processes, and facilitate an effective interface among the biomedical research, policy making, and national security communities. Dr. Smith has published extensively on MCM development policies, R&D incentives, and costs. In 2008, he collaborated with Center colleagues to publish a seminal analysis of the estimated costs and chances of success for the U.S. government’s MCM program. From 2005 through 2009, he was one of the principal organizers of the Alliance for Biosecurity, a collaboration between the Center and more than 10 biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The Alliance was committed to working in the public interest to promote a new era in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases—particularly those that present global security challenges—through innovative scientific and policy initiatives. Dr. Smith is also involved in strengthening international biosecurity preparedness, and served as the Project Director for Atlantic Storm, a tabletop bioterrorism exercise that mimicked a transatlantic summit of international leaders from Europe and North America who must respond to a campaign of bioterrorist attacks. Dr. Smith is an Associate Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science. Dr. Smith has extensive hands-on laboratory experience with bacteria and with the tools of molecular biology that are used in genetic engineering. After graduating magna cum laude from Williams College with highest honors in biology, Dr. Smith joined the Biology Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). At M.I.T., he worked with Professors Graham Walker and Alan Grossman to study mechanisms of DNA repair, DNA mutagenesis, and DNA damage tolerance in the bacteria Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. In 2001, Dr. Smith graduated from M.I.T. with a PhD in biology. Dr. Smith has written and lectured extensively on biosecurity issues and is a member of the American Society for Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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