Cyril S. Smith
October 4, 1903 - August 25, 1992
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Scientific Discipline: Applied Physical Sciences Membership Type:
Emeritus
(elected 1957)
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Cyril Smith focused on metallurgy. During World War II he developed a method for the production of fissionable metals, which aided in the production of the atomic bomb. He was one of the original nine members of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's General Advisory Committee as appointed by President Truman. Also a notable historian of science, he was interested in the historical interplay between science and art, a subject on which he wrote numerous articles.
Smith earned his undergraduate degree in metallurgy from the University of Birmingham and went on to do his graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1927 he accepted a position as a researcher at the American Brass Company. He left this post in 1942 when he was called to Washington, D.C., to serve on the War Metallurgy Committee; he was later transferred to the Los Alamos National Laboratory to work on the Manhattan Project. In 1946 he was awarded the Medal of Merit for his work during the war. He was a member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee working toward peaceful uses for atomic energy. He then founded the Institute of Study of Metals at the University of Chicago before moving to MIT as a professor in the departments of humanities and metallurgy.
