He was born at 4 Nelson Street in Edinburgh's New Town,[1] the son of Isabella (née Carter) and Alexander W. Smith, a music teacher.

He was taught mathematics by George Chrystal, physics by Peter Guthrie Tait and chemistry by Alexander Crum Brown.

He went to Germany in 1886 for further postgraduate studies and gained his doctorate at the University of Munich under Prof Rainer Ludwig Claisen in Baeyer's laboratory in 1889.

[7] After moving to the United States, Smith was professor of chemistry and mineralogy at Wabash College (1890–1894) and later a faculty member at the University of Chicago (1895–1911).

In 1911 he was called to Columbia University to be professor and head of the department of chemistry, and in the same year he held the presidency of the American Chemical Society.