David Smith's Biography

David Smith, Professor, Keele University

During his earlier career in astrophysics and astrochemistry, David Smith conceived and developed the selected ion flow tube (SIFT) and the flowing afterglow/Langmuir probe (FALP) techniques, which have been widely used for the study of reaction processes in ionised gases. He has made major contributions to the physics and chemistry of the terrestrial atmosphere and interstellar gas clouds. In 1988 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. Currently, he is at the Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine in the School of Medicine at Keele University, UK, where, with Patrik Španel, he conceived and developed the SIFT-MS and FA-MS analytical techniques for trace gas analysis. Special reference has been made to the quantification of metabolites in exhaled human breath and the headspace of biological fluids in support of clinical diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring, and to other areas including biological and environmental monitoring and health and safety practice. He is currently co-author of more than 400 review and research papers published in scientific and medical journals and recently the co-editor of a text entitled Volatile Biomarkers: Non-invasive Diagnosis in Physiology and Medicine, Elsevier, 2013.