[2] As a child, Smith lost his cousin due to childhood leukaemia, which he says has inspired him to find a cure.
[2] In 1998, he received the Junior Chamber Ireland's National Outstanding Young Person of the Year Award in the area of Scientific Development.
[3] In 2002, Smith was appointed Professor of Haematology at the Faculty of Medical and Dental Sciences at Trinity College Dublin.
[4] In this role, he oversaw the launch of a partnership between University College Dublin and IEHG to form the CADC, touted as the "largest cancer treatment centre in the country.
[9] He also co-published a study on Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia which showed that the cancer cells could be broken into three subgroups through analysis of DNA methylation.