Eric Smith honored with emeritus status

Eric Smith, professor of statistics in the College of Science, has been conferred the title of professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The emeritus title may be conferred on retired faculty members who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.

A member of the Virginia Tech community for more than 42 years, Smith made significant contributions to multivariate analysis, multivariate graphics, biological sampling and modeling, ecotoxicology, data analytics, and visualization. 

In addition, he served as associate editor for several top journals in the fields of statistics and environmental statistics. He brought international visibility to Virginia Tech through his work with The International Environmetrics Society and authored or co-authored more than 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters. 

Smith served on several governmental advisory committees including the National Academy of Science panels on restoration of the Everglades and on the technical advisory board for Chesapeake Bay. In addition, he served as department head from 2007-15 and 2023-24 as well as director of the Statistical Consulting Center from 1995-2004.

In the classroom, he taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of biological statistics, biometry, consulting, data mining, visualization and analytics, and multivariate methods.

Throughout his career, Smith served as principal investigator or co-investigator on over 30 contracts and grants. He directed over 20 doctoral students and served on numerous master’s and doctoral committees. He supported his teaching mission by the successful development of the Computational Modeling and Data Analytics program and the Master of Arts in Data Analysis and Applied Statistics program. 

Smith received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the University of Georgia and his master’s degree and Ph.D. in biomathematics at the University of Washington. 

Written by Emily Southern, a senior majoring in multimedia journalism and student writer for Virginia Tech Marketing and Communications