Sir Christopher Hubert Llewellyn Smith (born 19 November 1942) is an

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Professor of Physics at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Education

Llewellyn Smith was educated at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

(BA) and completed his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

degree in

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

in 1967.

Career and research

After his DPhil he worked at the

Lebedev Physical Institute The Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LPI RAS or just LPI) (in russian: Физи́ческий институ́т имени П.Н.Ле́бедева Российской академии наук (ФИАН)), situated ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

and then the

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Departme ...

before returning to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1974. Llewellyn Smith was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1984. While Chairman of Oxford Physics (1987–92), he led the merger of five different departments into a single Physics Department. Smith was Director General of

from 1994 to 1998. Thereafter he served as Provost and President of

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(1999–2002).

Awards and honours

Llewellyn Smith received the James Clerk Maxwell Medal and Prize in 1979, and Glazebrook Medal and Prize of the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...

in 1999 and was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in 2001. In 2004, he became Chairman of the Consultative Committee for Euratom on Fusion (CCE-FU). Until 2009 he was Director of UKAEA Culham Division, which holds the responsibility for the United Kingdom's

fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

programme and operation of the

Joint European Torus The Joint European Torus, or JET, is an operational magnetically confined plasma physics experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, UK. Based on a tokamak design, the fusion research facility is a joint European pro ...

(JET). He is a member of the Advisory Council for the

Campaign for Science and Engineering The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) is a non-profit organisation that is the UK's leading independent advocate for science and engineering. It focuses on arguing for more research funding, promoting a high-tech and knowledge-based e ...

. In 2013, he joined the

National Institute of Science Education and Research The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) is an autonomous premier public research institute in Jatani, Odisha, India under the umbrella of Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India. The institute is a constituen ...

(NISER), Bhubaneswar, India as a Distinguished Professor. In 2015, he was awarded the

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important ...

of the

Personal life

Llewellyn Smith married in 1966 and has one son and one daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Llewellyn Smith, Christopher 1942 births Living people Alumni of New College, Oxford British nuclear physicists English physicists People associated with CERN Experimental particle physics Experimental physicists Academics of University College London Fellows of New College, Oxford Fellows of St John's College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy International Centre for Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science Applications in the Middle East people Knights Bachelor Maxwell Medal and Prize recipients Particle physicists Provosts of University College London Department of Physics, University of Oxford