Dr. Smith is a Microbial Ecologist at USC Aiken where he studies microbial interactions with marine organisms. He is on the graduate faculty in the Department of Marine Medicine and Environmental Studies at MUSC and the College of the Environment at USC Columbia.

He maintains a laboratory at the Center for Hydrogen Research where he screens nitrogen-fixing bacteria for their potential to produce hydrogen in fuel cells. Smith also studies diseases of corals throughout the world and is the co-chair of the Coral Disease Working Group in the World Bank’s Targeted Coral Research Program. Smith has identified pathogens associated with diseases of scleractinian corals, gorgonians, echinoderms and sponges. His research, while concentrating in the Caribbean, includes studies in the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and throughout the Pacific. He has published over 100 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals.