Dr Andrew Smith has been awarded a Personal Chair in Clinical Bacteriology at the University of Glasgow.

The newly appointed Professor is the Head of the Diagnostic Oral Microbiology Laboratory at Glasgow Dental Hospital & School and also the lead microbiologist for instrument decontamination services in NHS Glasgow and Clyde. Nationally, he has advised several working groups on instrument decontamination and has been involved in the last two Department of Health risk assessments for the transmission of vCJD via dental procedures.

Professor Smith has published over 70 research articles in peer reviewed journals and has research funding in excess of £2 million. This has involved key projects linking with colleagues at the CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh and scientists at Health Protection Agency, Porton Down. Locally he works as a Consultant Microbiologist providing on-call and Consultant Microbiology advice to North Glasgow hospitals on all aspects of clinical microbiology. He is the only dentally qualified person to have sat and passed the advanced course in sterilisation technology administered by the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management.