Ian Smith received his B.Sc. Hons in chemistry and M.Sc. in physical chemistry from the University of Manitoba in 1961 and1962, and his Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from the University of Cambridge, U.K. in 1965. From1965 to1966 he was a postdoc in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University with Professor. Harden McConnell. He joined the Bell Telephone Labs from 1966 to 1967 as Research Scientist, and was then appointed Group Leader in Molecular Biophysics at the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa in1968. In 1987, he was appointed Director General of the NRC Institute for Biological Sciences, until 1992, when he became founder and Director General of the NRC Institute for Biodiagnostics in Winnipeg. He was an adjunct Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Ottawa from 1970 until 1992, and is currently an adjunct professor of Physics, Radiology, and Anatomy at the Universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba. He is also President of Innovative Biodiagnostics Inc. a company which he founded, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of CIMTEC, Centre for Imaging Technology Commercialization, based in London and Toronto, Ontario.
Ian has performed pioneering research in the application of advanced physical methods, such as 2H and 13C NMR, to systems of biological interest, including membranes, polysaccharide antigens, peptides and metabolites. Some of his major accomplishments include participating in the development of a vaccine for infantile meningitis and the design of a moveable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system useful in surgery. He facilitated the formation of IMRIS, a provider of advanced medical imaging systems, Novadaq, supplying medical devices involving optical imaging, and Biomedical Commercialization Canada (now the Manitoba Technology Accelerator, and several others.. He has published over 430 papers with an h-index of 63 (as of 2015). His pioneering contributions have been recognized through numerous awards, including:
- Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada, 1973
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, June, 1977
- Fellow of the Biophysical Society of North America, 1988
- Fellow of the Biophysical Society of Canada 2015
- Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2002
- Officer of the Order of Canada, 2008
- Order of the Buffalo Hunt, Manitoba, 2013
- Outstanding Achievement Award of the Public Service of Canada, 2008
- Star of Romania from the President of Romania, 2004
- Queen’s Gold (2002) and Diamond (2012) Jubilee Medals
- Flavelle Medal, Royal Society of Canada, 1996
- Honorary doctorates Stockholm University,1986, University of Winnipeg, 1990 Brandon University, 2001
Ian sits/sat on the boards of major Canadian and international institutions/corporations, where he serves/ed in leadership roles:
- Executive Committee, Genome Prairie
- Advisory Board, Novadaq Technologies
- Chairman, Board of Management, Ontario Centre of Excellence in Photonics
- Board of Directors, Ontario Centres of Excellence
- Advisory Team, Lombard Life Sciences
- Chairman, Manitoba Health Research Council
- Board of Governors, University of Manitoba
- President, University of Manitoba Alumni Association
- General Committee, International Council of Scientific Unions
- President, International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics, 2005-2008
- Chairman, NRC Committee on International Science, Engineering, and Technology
- Manitoba Premier’s Advisory Board on Economic Development
- Investment Committee at ENSIS Growth Fund
- Canadian representative to IUPAB
Selected Publications:
- “Deuterium Magnetic-Resonance, Applications in Chemistry, Physics and Biology” H.H. Mantsch, H. Saito & I.C.P. Smith Progress in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1977) 11, 211-271.
- “Composition Sequence and Conformation of Polymers and Oligomers of Glucose as Revealed by Carbon-13 NMR” P. Colson, H.J. Jennings & I.C.P. Smith Journal of the American Chemical Society (1974) 96, 8081-8087.
- “Structural Determination of the Sialic-Acid Poly Saccharide Antigens of Neisseria-Meningitidis” Serogroup B and Serogroup C with Carbon-13 NMR A.K. Bhattacharjee, H.J. Jennings, C.P, Kenny, et al. Journal of Biological Chemistry (1975) 250, 1926-1932.
- “Molecular-Motion and Order in Single-Bilayer Vesicles and Multilamellar Dispersions of Egg Lecithin and Lecithin-Cholesterol Mixtures – Deuterium Nuclear Magnetic-Resonance Study of Specifically Labeled Lipids” G.W. Stockton, C.F. Polnaszek, A.P. Tulloch, et al. Biochemistry (1976) 15, 954-966.
- “Spin Labels in Membranes: Problems in Practice” S. Schreier, C.F. Polnaszek & I.C.P. Smith Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (1978) 515, 375-436.
- “Deuterium Nuclear Magnetic-Resonance Study of Condensing Effect of Cholesterol on Egg Phosphatidylcholine Bilayer Membranes .1. Perdeuterated Fatty-Acid Probes” G.W. Stockton & I.C.P. Smith Chemistry and Physics of Lipids (1976) 17, 251-263.
- “Molecular Details of Anesthetic-Lipid Interaction as Seen by 2H and 31P Nuclear MagneticResonance” Y. Boulanger, S. Schreier & I.C.P. Smith Biochemistry (1981) 20, 6824-6830
- “Interactions of the Local Anesthetic Tetracaine with Membranes Containing Phosphatidylcholine and Cholesterol” M. Auger, I.C.P Smith & H.C. Jarrell Biochemistry (1988) 27, 4660-4667
- “Direct Measurement of Deuterium-Deuterium Dipolar Coupling and Analyzing the Ordering of a Specifically Deuteriated Diunsaturated Lipid” J.E. Baenziger, I.C.P .Smith & H.C. Jarrell J. Amer. Chem. Soc. (1988) 110, 8229-8231
- “H-1 MRS of High-Grade Astrocytomas – Mobile Lipid-Accumulation in Necrotic Tissue A.C. Kuesel, G.R. Sutherland, W. Halliday, et al. NMR In Biomedicine (1994) 7, 149-155.
- “Stimulated Anti-echo Selection in Spatially Localized NMR Spectroscopy” J.-M. Zhu & I.C.P. Smith J.Magn. Res. (1999) 136, 1-5
- “MRS on Fine Needle Aspirate Biopsy Determines Pathology, Vascularization, and Nodal Involvement” C. E.Mountford, R.L. Somorjai, L. Gluck et al. British Journal of Surgery (2001) 88, 1234-1240
- “MRS-based Metabolomics in Cancer Research” T. Bezabeh, O.B. Ijare, A.E. Nikulin et al. Magnetic Resonance Insights (2014) 7,1-14
