Kirk Smith

Dr. Smith died on June 15 2020 at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 73. Dr. Smith was born Robert Kirk Nisbet on Jan. 19, 1947, in Berkeley. His father, Robert Nisbet, was a lawyer, and his mother, Ruth (Griffin) Nisbet, a homemaker. He was 4 when his parents divorced. His mother married James Smith, an engineer, in the mid-1950s, and Robert Kirk Nisbet soon changed his name to Kirk Robert Smith. He grew up in and around Berkeley and Oakland until the family moved to Marin County in the late ’50s. His new next-door neighbor, Joan Diamond, became his wife in 1977. She and their daughter survive him, as do two grandchildren and three half brothers, Scott Nisbet and Mark and Thaddeus Smith. Prof. Smith is Professor of Global Environmental Health and is also founder and director of the campus-wide Masters Program in Global Health and Environment. Previously, he was founder and head of the Energy Program of the East-West Center in Honolulu before moving to Berkeley in 1995. He serves on a number of national and international scientific advisory committees including the Global Energy Assessment, National Research Council’s Board on Atmospheric Science and Climate, the Executive Committee for WHO Air Quality Guidelines, and the International Comparative Risk Assessment of the Global Burden of Disease Project. He participated, along with many other scientists, in the IPCC’s 3rd and 4th assessments and shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and is Convening Lead Author for Climate and Health for the 5th Assessment. He holds visiting professorships in India and China and bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees from UC Berkeley and, in 1997, was elected member in the US National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors awarded to US Scientists by their peers. In 2009, he received the Heinz Prize in Environment and in 2012 was awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. Ph.D. Biomedical and Environmental Health: Energy & Environment (1977), University of California Berkeley M.P.H. Environmental Health Sciences (1972), University of California Berkeley B.A. Physical Sciences: Physics and Astronomy (1968), University of California Berkeley