Professor David Smith BA PhD FIMA

Professor David Smith

School of Mathematics
Professor of Applied Mathematics

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 7374
Email
d.j.smith@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@DaveSmithMaths
View my research portal
Address
School of Mathematics
Watson Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dave Smith is Professor of Applied Mathematics.

He is author or co-author of around 80 research outputs and reviews in scientific journals, including in the Internationally-leading publications Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A and Journal of Open Source Software. He has received funding from EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC, Alan Turing Institute, STFC and Wellcome Trust.

Dave's main interests centre on how mathematical modelling can provide insights into systems in medicine and biology, with key areas of interest including the fluid dynamics of swimming cells and ciliated tissue with applications in reproduction and early embryo development; adrenal hormone dynamics; diagnostic spectroscopy and mechanical stimulus for rehabilitation.

He founded and is editor Mathematics in Medical and Life Sciences (published by Taylor and Francis), a multidisciplinary journal which champions the role of mathematics, statistics and computation in biology, ecology and medicine. He is also leader of the UK Fluids Network Special Interest Group in Biologically Active Fluids.

Dave has lectured a range of undergraduate and postgraduate topics, from 1st year Probability and Combinatorics to masters-level Numerical Methods in Linear Algebra, Viscous Flow and Computational Methods.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Applied Mathematics, University of Birmingham, 2006
  • BA (Hons I) in Mathematical Sciences, University of Oxford, 2000

Biography

Dave qualified with a BA (Hons) from the University of Oxford in 2000. In 2001 he began studying for a PhD at the University of Birmingham, inspired by emerging links between Applied Mathematics and the School of Medicine. Dave completed his PhD in 2005 (graduating the following year), leading to several publications on the mechanics of airway defence, and the role of fluid mechanics in early embryo development.

Following his PhD, Dave received funding from the Wellcome Trust Value in People Fellowship scheme, enabling him to begin working with colleagues at Birmingham Women’s Hospital and Medical School on studying how human sperm swim, from a combined mathematical and experimental perspective. This led to an MRC Training Fellowship, and subsequently a Birmingham Science City Fellowship.

In December 2009, Dave was appointed lecturer in the School of Mathematics, and combines collaborative research both within the department, cross-college and with other universities, with teaching and management responsibilities, including Master’s programme development.

In 2015 Dave was promoted to Senior Lecturer and became Head of the Applied Mathematics research group, and in 2017 Dave was promoted to Professor of Applied Mathematics. He is currently School Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange.

Teaching

Semester 1

LH/LM Advanced Mathematical Modelling

Postgraduate supervision

Dave has supervised or co-supervised 7 successful PhD candidates in topics working on fluid mechanics in biomedicine and biotechnology, in addition to supporting the development of many others.

Highly-qualified candidates interested in biological fluid dynamics and/or modelling in endocrinology are warmly encouraged to get in touch about PhD supervision.

Research

Research Themes

  • Cell motility, particularly sperm swimming
  • Modelling embryonic development
  • Biological viscous fluid mechanics
  • Biomedical modelling

Research Activity

Mathematical and computational modelling of biological systems, with a focus on microscale mechanical processes.

Other activities

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Butcher, N, Tyrrell, J & Smith, D 2025, 'CNearest: A C++ toolkit to use the nearest-neighbour method of regularised stokeslets algorithm to solve viscous flow problems', Journal of Open Source Software, vol. 10, no. 113, 7605. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.07605

Schuech, R, Nielsen, LT, Humphries, S, Smith, D & Kiørboe, T 2025, 'Fluid dynamics of dinoflagellate feeding and swimming', Limnology and oceanography. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12764

Alsaleh, A, Smith, D & Jabbari, S 2025, 'Mathematical modelling of the vitamin C clock reaction: a study of two kinetic regimes', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 12, no. 3, 241340. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.241340

Chu, M, Buchan, E, Smith, D & Goldberg Oppenheimer, P 2024, 'Development and application of an optimised Bayesian shrinkage prior for spectroscopic biomedical diagnostics', Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, vol. 245, 108014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmpb.2024.108014

Gallagher, MT, Kirkman-Brown, J & Smith, D 2023, 'Axonemal regulation by curvature explains sperm flagellar waveform modulation', PNAS nexus, vol. 2, no. 3, pgad072. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad072

Sampaio, P, Pestana, S, Bota, C, Guerrero, A, Telley, I, Smith, D & Lopes, SS 2023, 'Fluid extraction from the left-right organizer uncovers mechanical properties needed for symmetry breaking', eLife, vol. 12, e83861. <http://10.7554/eLife.83861>

Ishimoto, K, Gaffney, EA & Smith, D 2023, 'Squirmer hydrodynamics near a periodic surface topography', Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, vol. 11, 1123446. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1123446

Newton, SL, Franke, A, Zahl, A, Molinaro, G, Kenwright, A, Smith, DJ, Ivanovic-Burmazovic, I, Britton, MM & Peacock, AFA 2023, 'Understanding the mechanism by which Gd(iii) coiled coils achieve magnetic resonance relaxivity: – a study into the water coordination chemistry', Dalton Transactions, vol. 52, no. 43, pp. 15665-15668. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3DT02909C

Prete, A, Taylor, AE, Bancos, I, Smith, DJ, Foster, MA, Kohler, S, Fazal-Sanderson, V, Komninos, J, O'Neil, DM, Vassiliadi, DA, Mowatt, CJ, Mihai, R, Fallowfield, JL, Annane, D, Lord, JM, Keevil, BG, Wass, JAH, Karavitaki, N & Arlt, W 2021, 'Response to Letter to the Editor from Chee et al: "Prevention of Adrenal Crisis: Cortisol Response to Major Stress Compared to Stress Dose Hydrocortisone Delivery"', The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, vol. 106, no. 1, pp. e407-e408. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa719

Prete, A, Taylor, AE, Bancos, I, Smith, DJ, Foster, MA, Kohler, S, Fazal-Sanderson, V, Komninos, J, O'Neil, DM, Vassiliadi, DA, Mowatt, CJ, Mihai, R, Fallowfield, JL, Annane, D, Lord, JM, Keevil, BG, Wass, JAH, Karavitaki, N & Arlt, W 2021, 'Response to Letter to the Editor: "Prevention of Adrenal Crisis: Cortisol Response to Major Stress Compared to Stress Dose Hydrocortisone Delivery"', The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, vol. 106, no. 1, pp. e404-e406. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa712

Conference contribution

Cupples, G, Gallagher, MT, Smith, D & Kirkman-Brown, J 2021, Heads and tails: requirements for informative and robust computational measures of sperm motility. in L Björndahl, J Flanagan, R Holmberg & U Kvist (eds), XIIIth International Symposium on Spermatology. Springer, Cham, pp. 135-150. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66292-9_21

Editorial

Smith, D, Maretvadakethope, S, Wilson, LG & Polin, M 2025, 'Emerging directions for biologically active fluids', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, vol. 383, no. 2304, 20240273. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2024.0273

Smith, D 2024, 'Mathematics in medical and life sciences: a multidisciplinary journal championing accessible, complete and transparent communication of mathematics applied to medical, biological and ecological systems', Mathematics in Medical and Life Sciences, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1080/29937574.2023.2279381

Other contribution

Banks, MG & Smith, D 2022, The Secret Science of Baby: The Surprising Physics of Creating a Human, from Conception to Birth--And Beyond. BenBella Books. <https://benbellabooks.com/shop/the-secret-science-of-baby/>

Software

Butcher, N, Tyrrell, J & Smith, D, CNearest, 2024, Software. <https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16912253>

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Dave Smith is Professor of Applied Mathematics; his research focuses on how mathematics can be used to improve healthcare, through the development of new diagnoses and improved treatments, and also through helping biomedical researchers build quantitative understanding of complex systems that underlie disease. Particular areas of involvement include male fertility via collaboration with Centre for Human Reproductive Science, Birmingham Women’s Hospital, and endocrine disorder, via collaboration with Institute for Metabolism and Systems Research, University of Birmingham. He works as a college member and review panellist for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, mainly contributing in the area of Healthcare Technologies Research.