As one of the world’s foremost experts on concussion and more severe forms of traumatic brain injury (TBI), Dr. Smith is the Robert A. Groff Endowed Professor of Neurosurgery and Director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania. His international leadership includes currently serving as President-elect of the National Neurotrauma Society and as the Scientific Director of the Big 10/ Ivy league Collaboration on Concussion.  He also serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the US National Football League (NFL), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-DoD consortium on concussion and the International Concussion Society.  Furthermore, Dr. Smith serves as an inaugural trustee of the Mind Your Brain Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to outreach and education of brain injury patients and caregivers.   

Dr. Smith contributions include the discovery of the underlying cause of concussion symptoms as well as approaches for its diagnosis and treatment.  Specifically, his group identified that physical and functional damage to nerve fibers (axons) due to concussion disrupts electrical signaling through brain networks and that blood biomarkers of axonal damage can be used to predict the length of recovery.  In addition, his group was the first to discover mechanisms of concussion and more severe traumatic brain injury that lead to progressive neurodegeneration, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy and Alzheimer’s disease.  

Dr. Smith’s work attracted attention of the U.S. State Department who asked him to assemble a team of experts to investigate mysterious neurological deficits affecting members of the US embassy in Cuba.  Their findings led to a newly discovered disorder, “Havana Syndrome.”  Dr. Smith’s collective efforts are represented in over 300 published scientific reports that are among the most highly cited in the field.  From this work, Dr. Smith is ranked amongst the top of world scientists. His awards include the Dorothy Russell medal, the highest honor conveyed by the British Neuropathological Society, the William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award from the University of Pennsylvania, the Anthony B. Marmarou Memorial Neurotrauma Lecture Award from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the Deal of the Year Award from Penn’s Center for Innovation for a licensed invention that has promise in repairing the brain.