SIVB Lifetime Achievement Award

The highest honor given by the Society for In Vitro Biology is the Lifetime Achievement Award. It is presented to scientists who are considered pioneers or highly influential researchers to the science and art of cell culture. They are men and women who have devoted their careers to exemplary research and/or teaching. The recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award are selected by vote of the Board of Directors from a list of nominations recommended by the Awards Committee. The Society for In Vitro Biology honored Dr. Paul J. Price and Dr. William J. Smith with SIVB Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 2013 World Congress on In Vitro Biology. This issue highlights Dr. William Smith’s career. Dr. Paul Price’s career was highlighted in the last issue of the In Vitro Report.

On behalf of the US Army Medical Research Institute and SIVB, it was a pleasure to nominate Dr. Bill Smith for the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award. It is hard to encapsulate the impact Bill has had on peers and co-workers. In addition to being a superb scientist who pioneered much of the groundwork for a mechanistic understanding of the physiological responses to vesicant exposure, Bill is also an outstanding manager and effective mentor of scientists at all levels.

Bill earned his baccalaureate degree from King’s College in 1968 and served as a technician at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD) for four years. After leaving federal service to earn a PhD at Nova University, Bill served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine for 8 years. In 1987 Bill accepted a full-time job at the USAMRICD, and within a year became the lead researcher on a new effort focusing on in vitro efforts to explicate the pathophysiology of sulfur mustard in human skin, eye and lung. Bill was a firm believer that a strong mechanistic understanding of injury pathogenesis was critical to therapeutic development. Over 28 years at USAMRICD, his research was critical to our understanding of the pathophysiologies of vesicating agents, and his findings have guided clinical management of vesicant injuries. Bill’s work identified many of the cellular responses to vesicant exposure, including stimulation of cytokine release, biomarker release, genotoxicity, the role of mitochondria in injury progression and cytotoxic mechanisms. He developed these findings by pioneering the use of in vitro cell cultures as a toxicological tool for vesicant agent research. Many of Bill’s findings translated into in vivo models and then subsequently formed the basis for clinical standard of practice. Bill’s ability to identify and exploit relevant models of vesicant injury assisted him in maintaining a funded and active research program for 24 consecutive years, producing 88 peer-reviewed articles, 120 government-sponsored meeting publications, and 80 published scientific abstracts.

Not only was Bill a highly productive researcher, but he also excelled in personnel supervision and management. Bill always displayed a calm, competent and pleasant demeanor, and was well-liked and highly respected by both friends and competitors. He had the rare ability to convince diverse and sometimes antagonistic groups to invest in his vision, synergizing research teams to extraordinary levels of productivity. This ability served him well for over twenty years at USAMRICD as a PI as well as either a Branch Chief or Division Chief. Ultimately he was chosen to serve as the inaugural Senior Research Adviser. In this role Bill served as the Army’s subject matter expert on medical defense for chemical warfare agents, providing scientific information and policy recommendations at national and international meetings. In addition to representing the institute’s research portfolio, he was aggressive and enthusiastic in supporting the institute’s younger scientists and ensuring their capabilities and innovative approaches were marketed to representatives of our various funding agencies.

Bill served a number of leadership roles in SIVB, and was ultimately elected to serve a two-year term as President. During his term, Bill oversaw the 2011 meeting in Raleigh, NC, the 2012 meeting in Bellevue, WA, and finalized the transition to Springer (initiated by Mike Horn) for In Vitro-Plant and In Vitro-Animal, that reduced publication costs and increased revenues.

Dr Smith retired in the fall of 2012, with 28 years of Federal Service and 43 years as an active scientist. He left with numerous awards and recognitions as a leading expert in the field of chemical warfare agent-induced pathophysiologies. With Bill’s retirement the USAMRICD, chemical warfare agent research program and the in vitro toxicology community has lost a strong proponent, and he will be sorely missed.

Submitted by Patrick McNutt