Cyril Stanley Smith
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Plindenbaum
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infobox
{{for|other persons with the name Cyril Smith|Cyril Smith (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox Engineer
|image =Replace_this_image_male.svg
|image_size = 150px
|caption = {{PAGENAME}}
|name = {{PAGENAME}}
|nationality = [[England]]
|birth_date = [[October 4]], [[1903]]
|birth_place = [[Birmingham]], [[England]]
|death_date = [[August 25]], [[1992]]
|death_place =
|education =[[University of Birmingham]]<br/> [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
|spouse =
|parents =
|children =
|discipline =
|institutions =
|practice_name =
|significant_projects = [[Manhattan Project]]
|significant_design =
|significant_advance =[[metallurgy]]<br/> production of [[nuclear fission|fission]]able [[metal]]s
|significant_awards =
}}
'''Cyril Stanley Smith''' ([[October 4]], [[1903]]–[[August 25]], [[1992]]) was a renowned [[metallurgy|metallurgist]] and [[History of sciences|historian of science]]. Smith is perhaps most famous for his work on the [[Manhattan Project]] where he was responsible for the production of [[nuclear fission|fission]]able [[metal]]s.
Smith was born in [[Birmingham]], [[England]] and studied metallurgy at the [[University of Birmingham]] (BSc) and at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (Sc.D). Following his doctorate Smith took up a research post at the American Brass Company. In 1942 he was called into service at the War Metallurgy Committee hosted in [[Washington]]. He soon transferred to the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] to work on the Manhattan Project. He was awarded the Presidential Medal for these activities in 1946.
After the war he founded the [[Institute of Study of Metals]] at the [[University of Chicago]]. On moving to MIT he worked in both the Department of Humanities and the Department of Metallurgy, gaining the title Institute [[Professor Emeritus]]. His focus was to transplant the techniques of metallurgy into the study of the production methods used to create artefacts discovered by [[archaeology|archaelogists]].
Smith later published several works linking the arts with the sciences. He died of cancer in his [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]] home aged 88. He was survived by his wife of sixty years ([[Alice Kimball Smith]], a [[history of science and technology|historian of science]]) and two children.
==References==
*[http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1992/sep02/26872.html An obituary from the MIT news office]
*[http://kurzweil.mit.edu/archives/VOL_081/TECH_V081_S0024_P001.txt An archived news release from MIT including the announcement of Smith's appointment]
*[http://jfi.uchicago.edu/~tten/rainbow/ri.history/Kleppa.history/smith.html A photo of Professor Smith during his time at Chicago]
==Selected works==
*''History of Metallography: The Development of Ideas on the Structure of Metals Before 1890'', 1988, ISBN 0-262-69120-5, MIT Press.
*''From Art to Science'' 1982, ISBN 0-262-19181-4, MIT Press.
*''Search for Structure: Selected Essays on Science, Art and History'' 1981, ISBN 0-262-19191-1, MIT Press.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Cyril Stanley}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:Old Dowegians]]
[[Category:Metallurgists]]
[[Category:Manhattan Project people]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham]]
[[Category:Presidential Medal for Merit recipients]]
[[Category:People from Birmingham, England]]