Michael Smith
- Vancouver
Nobel
Prize winner Michael Smith is a professor of Biochemistry at the
University of British Columbia and director of UBC's Biotechnology
Laboratory. Born and educated in England, he has been with UBC since
1966.
Michael Smith
serves as scientific leader of the UBC-based Protein Engineering
Network Centre of Excellence, part of the federal program created
to encourage scientific research. The genetic process he pioneered
has opened doors for researchers in laboratories around the world,
leading to discoveries in a whole range of initiatives. His techniques
are being used to help wage molecular warfare on cancer cells, to
try to create faster-growing crops and to engineer synthetic blood
products.
Despite his
impressive achievements, his admirers note that he is open, approachable
and generous with his time, talent and knowledge. He believes scientists
have a responsibility to explain what they're doing and why it matters,
in terms we can all understand.
Michael Smith
has put his $500,000 Nobel prize money into an endowment fund for
outreach programs to boost awareness of science and for research
into schizophrenia.
Through his
life's work Michael Smith has distinguished both himself and B.C.'s
science and technology community.
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