Smith comes to UT Austin from Purdue University, where he has served as the dean of the Graduate School since 2009. In addition to his efforts as a university leader, Smith is widely recognized for his academic contributions and research in speech and image processing as well as object detection and recognition. He was also a member of the U.S. Olympic fencing teams in 1980 and 1984. He holds an undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree and doctorate from the Georgia Institute of Technology.