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October 19, 2009   Amos B. Smith III, the William Warren Rhodes-Robert J. Thompson Professor of Chemistry, was recently awarded an honorary doctorate of science from Queen’s University Belfast in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the field of organic chemistry.
In delivering the citation at the ceremony in which Smith was honored, Professor Robbie Burch described Smith as an outstanding synthetic organic chemist. “He is distinguished for his exemplary research contributions to the field of organic synthesis and new reaction development, and to the application of new methodologies for the synthesis of natural products that have the potential to be the basis of new anticancer drugs,” said Burch. “This research has particular relevance to Northern Ireland and Queen’s University, where the internationally renowned Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology is based.”
Smith earned Bucknell University’s first combined four-year, bachelor’s-master’s degree in chemistry, receiving his doctorate in chemistry from Rockefeller University in 1972. He joined the Penn faculty the following year. Smith served as chemistry department chair from 1988 to 1996, and in 1998 he became the first editor-in-chief of the American Chemical Society journal Organic Letters. This year he was also selected as member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Chemical Society.

November 2008  Amos B. Smith III MRSC, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Awarded for his many outstanding contributions to the total synthesis of complex natural products.
Amos Smith III undertook his two week lecture tour in November 2008, visiting a number of locations throughout the UK at which he delivered his Simonsen lecture.

April 24, 2006 Amos B. Smith, III, Rhodes-Thompson Professor of Chemistry and Member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center at the University of Pennsylvania, was elected to the American Academy of Sciences. (Click here for additional information.) Professor Smith obtained his early education at Bucknell University, receiving Bucknell’s first B.S.-M.S. combined degree in 1966-1967. After a year in Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania, he completed a Ph.D degree in Life Sciences at the Rockefeller University in 1972. In 1973, after a year as a Research Associate at Rockefeller, he joined the Department of Chemistry and the Monell Chemical Senses Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently he is the Rhodes-Thompson Professor of Chemistry and Member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center. From 1988 to 1996, he served as the Chairman of the Department of Chemistry. Professor Smith is also a Visiting Director and Honorary Member of the Kitasato Institute in Tokyo, Japan. In 1998 Professor Smith became the first Editor-in-Chief of a new American Chemical Society journal, Organic Letters, and in 2003 he was awarded the Yamada Prize from the Japan Research Foundation for Optically Active Compounds, Tokyo, Japan. Professor Smith’s research encompasses synthetic chemistry, bioorganic chemistry, and materials science. He is internationally known in particular for his outstanding achievements in the area of total synthesis of architecturally complex natural products having important bio-regulatory properties. To date, he and his coworker have published more than 515 publications in these areas. Over the course of 20 years, Professor Smith has accepted approximately 50 Japanese scientists into his laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught and fostered them in the broad area of chemistry. Professor Smith has also contributed significantly to academic exchanges between Japan and the U.S. by delivering lectures at Japanese universities and pharmaceutical companies. He visits Japan almost annually.