Portrait of Adrian Smith

Head and shoulders portrait of Adrian Smith, elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2001 and President (PRS) in 2020.

Sir Adrian Smith is a distinguished statistician, for which he was elected a Fellow in 2001. Alongside his outstanding academic record, he has a wealth of experience of working with government and leading word-class research institutes, such as Queen Mary University of London, where he was Principal (1998 - 2008); the University of London, where he was Vice-Chancellor (2012-18); and The Alan Turing Institute (2018 to present).

As the Director and Chief Executive of the Turing – the national institute for data science and artificial intelligence – he leads an organisation at the forefront of science that is shaping the future.

He has a strong track record of promoting science for the public good, both in his current role at the Turing Institute and when he was Director General for Knowledge and Innovation (2008-12) in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (now BEIS). In his time there, he played an instrumental role in securing a flat cash settlement for science in the 2010 government Comprehensive Spending Review – a major success at a time when most sectors were suffering cuts. It was the start of a process that has seen the government commit to increased investment in UK R&D.

He is a long-time advocate for STEM education and encouraging more girls to study mathematics. He led a 2002-4 inquiry into post-14 maths education, and in 2016-18, led a review of maths teaching for 16 to 18-year-olds, both for the Department for Education.

Cited from: https://royalsociety.org/news/2020/11/sir-adrian-smith-becomes-president-royal-society/