Brian Smith

Education and career Smith was born in North Wales and attended Wirral Grammar School for Boys. He read Chemistry at University of Liverpool, earning a BSc followed by a PhD. Upon completing his PhD, Smith took up a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley, where he worked with Joel Henry Hildebrand. He was next a research fellow at the Physical Chemistry Laboratory at Oxford and was a lecturer and a fellow of St Catherine's College from 1960. and served on the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales. Smith also received a DSc from the University of Oxford in recognition of this research, notably his contribution to advances in the technology of deep-sea diving.

Smith was made a Knight Bachelor for "services to Academic-Business Partnership and to Higher Education" in the 1999 New Year Honours.

Personal life Growing up in North Wales and the Wirral, Smith was an ardent supporter of Liverpool Football Club. Smith's funeral took place on 17 June 2023 in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.