Temple F. Smith

Temple Ferris Smith (born March 7, 1939) is an emeritus professor in biomedical engineering who developed the Smith-Waterman algorithm with Michael Waterman in 1981.

Research and career After his PhD, Smith did postdoctoral research from March 1969 to August 1971 in the Department of Biophysics and Genetics, University of Colorado Medical School, Boulder.

His research is centered on the application of various computer science and mathematical methods for the discovery of the syntactic and semantic patterns in nucleic acid and amino acid sequences. In recent years this has focus on molecular evolution of protein families. such as the WD-repeat beta propellers, translation associated GTPase, and the ribosomal proteins. He is known for the creation of the Smith-Waterman algorithm.

Im 2002, he was inducted into American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) “for extraordinary contributions in defining and advancing the field of bioinformatics, with emphasis on novel engineering methods to predict protein structure and function”.