ScienceWatch.com Pays Tribute to Mark A. Smith
Special Topic of Alzheimer's Disease, June 2011
When the ScienceWatch.com team set about contacting the top Alzheimer's researchers for interviews relating to our Special Topics analysis on Alzheimer's Disease earlier this year, we were saddened to hear of the unexpected death of Dr. Mark A. Smith in a car accident in December 2010. As Dr. Smith's colleagues informed us how excited and honored he would have been by his placement in our analysis, we wanted to acknowledge the contributions his work has made to the field of Alzheimer's research over the past decade.
In our 2011 Special Topics analysis on Alzheimer's, Smith's work ranks at #1 by total papers and #5 by total cites, based on 329 papers cited a total of 11,807 times during the analysis period. Two of these papers appear on the top 20 papers lists as well. He also ranked among the top 20 researchers in our 2003 Special Topics analysis on Alzheimer's: placing at #4 by total papers, #8 by cites/paper, and #17 by total cites, based on 151 papers cited a total of 4,128 times during that analysis period. In Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate, Smith's work ranks among the top 1% of researchers in the field of Neuroscience & Behavior, Clinical Medicine, Biology & Biochemistry, and Pharmacology & Toxicology.
Smith was also highly ranked in the Top 100 Researchers study performed by the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
"...Mark was not shy about the love for his big CV and high citation index,
BUT he felt in his heart that his legacy would not be built by paper but by
what he gave to those around him."
~Gemma Casadesus
Excerpt from
"Eulogy to my husband Mark, February 14, 2011.
Smith was Professor of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University as well as Director of Basic Science Research at the University's Memory and Aging Center. He served on the editorial boards of some 200 journals, and was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. He was a Fellow of the American Aging Association, the Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the Royal College of Pathologists. He received many awards throughout his career, both for mentoring students and for his investigative research.
His research, like that of frequent coauthor Dr. George Perry of the University of Texas at San Antonio, concentrated on the roles of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer's—an approach that largely goes against the majority of researchers, who tend to point to amyloid beta as the primary causative agent of Alzheimer's. Perry discusses their research and stance on amyloid beta in his own ScienceWatch.com interview.
An article in Forbes magazine last year dubbed Smith a "renegade" for his vocal criticism of this theory. Despite disagreements over theory, Smith was nevertheless extremely well-liked and respected by his colleagues.
Below are tribute pages and other information about Dr. Smith.
- From the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Dr. Smith's obituary, and a tribute page.
- Case Western article about Dr. Smith, as well as his profile page.
- Dr. Smith's Wikipedia page.
MARK SMITH'S MOST CURRENT MOST-CITED PAPER IN ESSENTIAL SCIENCE INDICATORS:
Nunomura A, et al., "Oxidative damage is the earliest event in Alzheimer disease," J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol. 60(8): 759-67, August 2001 with 555 cites. Source: Essential Science Indicators from Clarivate .
KEYWORDS: ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE, AMYLOID BETA, APOLIPOPROTEIN E, 8-HYDROXYGUANOSINE, NEUROFIBRILLARY TANGLE, NITROTYROSINE, OXIDATIVE STRESS, AMYLOID PRECURSOR PROTEIN, APOLIPOPROTEIN-E GENOTYPE, SENILE PLAQUES, A-BETA, NEUROFIBRILLARY PATHOLOGY, ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY, RNA, ACCUMULATION.