He was also a Companion of the Order of Canada and received 25 honorary doctorates. A committed contributor to the transfer of biotechnology from research labs to industry, Dr. Smith served as the Scientific Leader of the Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence from 1990 to 1994. Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology at the University of British Columbia. In addition, he was Director of a new Genome Sequence Centre at the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver. In this position he had the responsibility of establishing a world class high throughput DNA sequencing facility which will contribute to our understanding of cancer and of other important genetic problems.
Science belongs to everyone.
Michael Smith gave generously to the people of Canada and the world, using his time and energy to reach out to audiences with his message about the importance of science to everyone's life.