Fundamentals of Chemistry

Dr. Smith is a professor of chemistry at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he has taught chemistry and physics since 1990. He earned a B.A. from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon in 1979 and, after five years in the U.S. Navy, including service on the fast-attack submarine USS Omaha, earned a Ph.D. from Oregon State University in 1989. He has also been a researcher at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. He retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve as a commander in 2002.

Dr. Smithʼs special area of expertise is in materials science. He has published over 40 scholarly papers in international refereed journals, has received over $2 million in federal and state grants, and holds a U.S. patent. He received the UNO Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity in 2009.

He and his wife, Carol, have six children and live mostly quiet lives in Omaha. Dr. Smith enjoys playing basketball, gardening, chess, and beating his kids at card games.