Sally E. Smith

Sarah Elizabeth Smith (née Harley; 10 May 1941 – 12 September 2019) was a British-born Australian mycologist specialising in mycorrhiza. The Australian Academy of Science described her as "a world authority on the mycorrhizal symbiosis between plants and fungi".

She gained BA (1962) and PhD degrees (1965) at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her PhD was on mycorrhizal fungi of orchids, supervised by Denis Garrett. She was awarded the DSc degree by the University of Adelaide, Australia, in 1991.

Publications Smith co-authored the textbook Mycorrhizal Symbiosis, first with her father

Awards and honours Smith was elected fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2001. She served on their council in 2005–2008. In 2006, she was awarded the J.K. Taylor, OBE, Gold Medal in Soil Science. She is an Honorary Professor at the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, and an Honorary Research Professor at the China Agricultural University, Beijing.