caption birth_place birth_date known_for prizes image article_title name
temple f. smith auburn , new york march 7 , 1939 smith-waterman algorithm iscb accomplishment by a senior scientist award temple 2008.jpg f. smith at yale , june 20 , temple f. smith
 temple f. smith
temple f. smith

temple f. smith is a university professor in biomedical engineering who helped to develop the smith-waterman algorithm with michael waterman in 1981 .
the smith-waterman algorithm serves as the basis for multi sequence comparisons , identifying the segment with the maximum local sequence similarity , see sequence alignment .
this algorithm is used for identifying similar dna , rna and protein segments .
he was director of the biomolecular engineering research center at boston university for twenty years and is now professor emeritus .
