Dr. Smith received his Ph. D. in Biology from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. As a Canadian Graduate Scholar, and a Young Ambassador of Science, he studied non self recognition is filamentous fungi as a method to promote spread of viruses in pathogenic fungal species. Upon graduation, he became a post-doctoral associate at Duke University. As a Duke Scholar in Infectious Disease, he used a combination of systems biology and synthetic biology to investigate mechanisms of antibiotics resistance and the spread of invasive species. Currently, Dr. Smith's lab focuses on understanding cooperation in bacteria using a multidisciplinary approach involving quantitative biology and mathematical modeling. Goals of his current research program are to develop new strategies to manipulate cooperation in spatially structured bacterial populations, as well as to manipulate cooperation to reduce antibiotic resistance.