Geoff Smith

Who is Geoff Smith?

Geoffrey Charles Smith, MBE is a British mathematician. He is Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Bath, where he works in group theory.

He was educated at Trinity School in Croydon, and attended Keble College, Oxford, the University of Warwick, and the University of Manchester, where he gained a Ph.D. in 1983. His thesis, Zeta functions of torsion-free finitely generated nilpotent groups, was written under the direction of Dan Segal.

Smith was the leader of the United Kingdom team at the International Mathematical Olympiad between 2002 and 2010, a longer continuous period than any other person. Under his leadership, the team achieved an average of 20th place, stronger than under the preceding leader, but weaker than in the previous period of two alternating leaders. He will again be leader in 2013.

Smith oversaw a quantitative increase in training: annual events in Bath, at Oundle School, in Hungary, at Trinity College, Cambridge, and immediately prior to the IMO itself. He also twice won the IMO Golden Microphone, awarded to the national team leader who makes the most speeches to the IMO Jury. In 2010 he was elected to the IMO Advisory Board for a four-year period.