Emil L. Smith (July 5, 1911 – May 31, 2009) was an American biochemist who studied protein structure and function as well as biochemical evolution.
Initially intending to go into medicine, Smith became interested in biology and organic chemistry during his second year at Columbia University.
Upon returning to the U.S. during World War II, he took a position at Yale University's Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station to work with Hubert Bradford Vickery.
He joined the lab of eminent protein chemist Max Bergmann at the Rockefeller Institute in 1940, where he worked with a number of important biochemists and began a significant line of research on the intestinal enzyme erepsin.
In 1969, he worked with James Bonner to sequence histone H4 in several species, which was also of significant use in evolutionary studies.