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Hamilton Smith

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Hamilton Smith

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Also known as Hamilton Othanel Smith, Hamilton O. Smith, Hamilton O Smith, H. O. Smith, H O Smith, Smith, Hamilton Othanel

American microbiologist (1931–2025)

OverviewAI-generated

Hamilton Othanel Smith (1931–2025) was an American biochemist, microbiologist, and biologist. Born in New York City, he worked in microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and genomics. He was employed by Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and the J. Craig Venter Institute. Smith was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Smith was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, and Johns Hopkins University. He died in Ellicott City. His works are recognized in the Nobel Laureates, Nobel Medicine, and American Academy Arts Sciences collections.

Synthesized by Vinony from 23 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Nobel Prize, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Key facts

Born
( 1931-08-23 ) August 23, 1931, New York City, U.S
Died
October 25, 2025 (2025-10-25) (aged 94), Ellicott City, Maryland , U.S.
Education
University of California, Berkeley , BA, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine , MD
Known for
Restriction enzymes
Awards
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1978
Fields
Molecular biology , biochemistry , genomics
Institutions
Washington University School of Medicine

via Wikipedia infobox

Nobel Prize

  • The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine1978

    for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics

    Shared · 1/3 portion

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Family name
Hamilton
Gender
male
Citizenship
United States
Place of birth
New York City
Place of death
Ellicott City
Occupation
microbiologist
Languages spoken
English language
Field of work
genomics
Image
Hamilton Smith, 2.jpg
Show 7 more facts
Commons category
Hamilton Othanel Smith
date of birth
1931-08-23
Erdős number
3
name in native language
Hamilton Othanel Smith
date of death
2025-10-25
interested in
microbiology
Sources (14)

via Wikidata · CC0

~3 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Hamilton Othanel Smith (August 31, 1931 – October 25, 2025) was an American microbiologist and Nobel laureate.

Early life and education

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Hamilton Smith” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (2)