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Next pageIf you have read your copy of the Caius Engineer you should already know who Professor Malcolm Smith is and what he has been doing - but just in case you failed to read that part of the C.E. here is a further copy of his biographical entry, (slightly updated and extended).
Malcolm's first degree was in mathematics at Cambridge, followed by an M.Phil and Ph.D. in Control in the Engineering Department. He stayed on for just over a year as a research assistant in the Engineering Department and then went to the German Aerospace Research Establishment as a Research Fellow. Following this he spent two years at McGill University, Montreal as Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering and then three years at Ohio State University as Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering. He finally returned to Cambridge to take a post as a lecturer in the Engineering Department in September 1990. In 1999 he was appointed Reader.
Malcolm's main technical interest is in control systems theory. He is an Associate Editor for the SIAM Journal on Control and Optimisation and in 1992 he was the winner of an IEEE best paper prize. For some years he was a consultant to Williams Grand Prix Engineering on active suspension systems. This association ended when FIFA banned the use of active suspension in Formula 1 racing. His major non-technical interest is in music, and specifically in organs and music for organs. He was organ scholar at Downing while an undergraduate, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. His teacher while he was organ scholar was the famous organist, Gillian Weir. Within Caius Malcolm has been an active Chairman of the Music Society and up to the start of this term he was a member of the College Council.
His principal sporting activity is skiing, and he is frequently absent from Cambridge just after Christmas, having headed off to one of the colder parts of Europe. However, he has also been seen out in the local countryside on a bicycle, and has also been spotted on roller-blades. He has recently become the owner of a very fine BMW, equipped with all the latest gadgets including television (automatically switched off while the car is in motion) and satellite navigation. Finally, he has just been awarded a personal chair in Control Engineering.