Dr. Gary D. Smith was raised in a small (~350 people) agricultural town in the high desert of California. He earned his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Animal Science from Oregon State University. In 1993 he was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Animal Science from Washington State University, followed by a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Oregon Primate Research Center. He began working in Human Reproduction in 1993. For the last 30+ years, Dr. Smith has successfully balanced (1) research, (2) directing clinical fertility laboratories, (3) developing new and improving existing Assisted Reproductive Technologies, and (4) training the next generation of reproductive doctors, scientists, and technologists. He is currently a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Physiology, and Urology at the University of Michigan.

Since 1995, Dr. Smith has been Scientific/Laboratory Director of Andrology and Embryology at the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, Huntington Centers for Reproductive Medicine of Brazil, and Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine. In the early 2000s, he was instrumental in bringing human egg cryopreservation to clinical use and trained ~600 embryologists worldwide. In 2002, Dr. Smith co-founded one of the nation’s first fertility preservation programs, which is integrated with the University of Michigan’s Rogel Cancer Center to provide seamless reproductive care for female and male cancer patients and survivors. He has mentored more than 70 predoctoral and postdoctoral students, medical residents, and fellows—many of whom are today’s leaders in Human Reproduction. His pioneering works on egg maturation/cryopreservation, sperm cryopreservation, embryo genetics, embryo culture, and non-invasive embryo analysis and selection have resulted in over 120 peer-reviewed articles and books. These studies have been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the Coulter Foundation, and the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

Dr. Smith is Board Certified as a High Complexity Laboratory Director (ABB) in both Andrology and Embryology. He is highly active in Assisted Reproductive Technology education, surveillance, and information dissemination through service on committees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Infertility National Action Plan Committee, Division of Reproductive Health), the College of American Pathologists, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Michigan Infertility Advisory Committee).