​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Employment History

• 1988 – 1993          
  Junior Research Fellow

• 1993 – 1996          
  Research Fellow II

• 1997 – 1999          
  Research Fellow I

• 2000 – 2002          
  Senior Research Fellow        

• 2003 – 2007          
  Chief Research Fellow

• 2008 – 2013          
  Deputy Director (Research)

• 2013 – date           
  Director (Research)

• 2014 – 2015          
  Associate Senior Lecturer, University of Lagos

• 2017 – 2019          
  Adjunct Associate Professor, Mountain Top University

• 2019 – date           
  Prof. (Microbiology), Mountain Top University

Activities in the Research System

• 2026                          
  Sun Publishers newspaper award of ‘Public Service Personality of the Year- 2025’

• 2025               
  Member of the International Agency for Research on Cancer/World Health Organisation (IARC/WHO) working Group on ‘Population-based Helicobacter pylori screen-and-treat for gastric cancer prevention: Guidance on the implementation of strategies, from 17–19 February 2025 at Lyon, France

• 2024                          
  Associate Editor, Digestive Diseases

• 2023                           
  Editorial Board Member of Frontiers in Microbiology IF (5. 64)

• 2022- 2023    
  Special Issue Editor on Antibiotic Resistance and therapy for H. pylori infection Antibiotics, IF 4.8      

• 2022               
  Professor Smith was called to be part of the Rating Review by the South Africa National Research Foundation (NRF), in evaluating the quality, impact and standing of the research portfolio of Prof. C. L. Obi.

• 2022 - 2024  
  Founding President/Founder, African Helicobacter and Microbiota Study Group (AHMSG) – outcome of the seven years of DFG funding on H. pylori

• 2022               
  Mentor under the I-Mentor: A Humboldt sponsored project for mentorship of women in STEM awarded to Prof. O. Odeku, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

• 2021               
  Mentor to Dr. Uche Igbasi, under the Fogarty EN-RTP Mentoring Term Training programme and NIH funding

• 2021               
  Member, Technical Working Group on Biosafety and Biosecurity in Nigeria organized by Sandia Laboratories US         

• 2010 – date   
  Reviewer to several national and international journals

• 2020               
  Reviewer, National Research Foundation expert review on proposal titled ‘Clinical and Environmental Risk Factors and  Microbiome/metabolome Signatures of Helicobacter pylori infection in a Diverse South African Cohort’           

• 2019 - date    
  Member, National Technical Working Group on AMR Research       

• 1999 – date    
  Over 20 research and equipment grants

• 1992 – date    
  Co-supervisor/supervisor to 16 PhD (13 completed), 32 MSc students and several BSc students and external assessor to MSc and PhD both within and outside Nigeria as well.
  
   

Academic Distinctions

• 2024   
  External Assessor, for the nomination of Nicola Jones to a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases at University of Toronto, Canada.

• 2023   
  Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Medical Sciences

• 2023               
  International Federation for Biosafety Association (US) (IFBA) certified in Biorisk Management

• 2022-2023      
  Co-Chair and member, African CDC, Foodborne Disease (FBD) Genomic Surveillance Group          

• 2022 – date    
  Was co-chair of oral and poster sessions at the European Helicobacter and Microbiota Study Group (EHMSG)

• 2022               
  Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences

• 2022               
  Consultant, R.E.G.A.I.N. project, Venice, Italy

• 2022               
  Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science

• 2021               
  Consultant, Maastricht Consensus VI project Italy

• 2018 – date    
  Reviewer/member, African-German Network of Excellence in Science (AGNES) 2018 - date

• 2018               
  Chairperson, Women in Science, German Research Foundation, workshop, Uganda

• 2018               
  List of 16 Prominent Nigerian women that excelled in Science and Research, silverbirdtv.com     

• 2017               
  List of 10 Nigerian women pulling their weight in Science by Leadership newspaper

• 2010               
  Several Travel grants and attendances and invited presentations at over 60 international conferences

• 2011               
  Sub-Committee Member, Review of National Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy

• 2001               
  Recipient of Who is Who in the World

• 1988               
  Letter of commendation from National Youth Service Corps

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Teaching and training workshop organised

Teach both undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Mountain Top University as well as organise molecular biology hands on training workshops for participants from five of the six geo-political zones of Nigeria including 400 L students of Mountain Top University and to date over 750 participants have been trained since inception in 2009.

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