Antony Slumbers
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George P. Smith
2018 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry | Pioneer of Phage Display | Curators Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri | Member, National Academy of Sciences
George P. Smith won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for inventing phage display — a technique that enabled the development of Humira, the world's best-selling drug, and transformed how humanity discovers antibody therapies for cancer, autoimmune disease, and beyond. His work is one of the most commercially consequential discoveries in the history of modern medicine.
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George P. Smith biography
George P. Smith is one of the most consequential scientists of the modern era — an American biochemist whose foundational invention transformed drug discovery and earned him the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is the Curators Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri, where he spent a forty-year career before retiring in 2015, and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. In 2023, he became the inaugural recipient of the Mizzou Medal of Distinction, the university’s most prestigious service award.
Nobel Prize speaker George P. Smith is best known as the inventor of phage display — a technique he developed in 1985 while on sabbatical at Duke University that would quietly become one of the most powerful and widely used tools in the history of biological science. Phage display works by inserting foreign DNA into bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria — so that the resulting proteins are expressed on the phage’s outer surface. This allows researchers to create vast libraries of protein variants, screen them for specific binding properties, and evolve proteins with precisely targeted functions through repeated cycles of selection and amplification. The method essentially applies the logic of Darwinian evolution to molecular engineering: rather than designing proteins from first principles, it lets them evolve toward a desired function.
Smith completed his undergraduate studies at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and received his doctorate in bacteriology and immunology from Harvard University in 1970. After a postdoctoral period at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he joined the University of Missouri, where he would remain for four decades. His early work at Duke in the 1983–84 academic year laid the groundwork for phage display, and his landmark 1985 paper established the technique that would bear fruit across multiple scientific disciplines for the next four decades.
From Laboratory Technique to the World’s Best-Selling Drug
The commercial and medical impact of phage display is staggering. The technique was extended by Sir Gregory Winter at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge to produce fully human therapeutic antibodies — work for which Winter shared the 2018 Nobel with Smith. This application pathway led directly to the development of adalimumab, marketed as Humira by AbbVie, the first fully human monoclonal antibody approved by the FDA. Approved in 2002 for rheumatoid arthritis and later for inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, and other chronic inflammatory conditions, Humira became the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history. Phage display has since been used to develop Benlysta for lupus, Portrazza for cancer, and dozens of additional approved therapies — representing hundreds of billions of dollars in medicines that would not exist without Smith’s original insight.
As a speaker, George P. Smith offers audiences a rare and deeply humanizing perspective on how fundamental science creates the medicines that save and transform lives. His talks trace the journey from a solitary researcher’s insight — developed not at a major research university but during a sabbatical visit, decades before anyone could anticipate the applications — to one of the most globally significant platforms in biotechnology. For audiences in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, life sciences, research institutions, and any organization committed to understanding how transformative innovation actually happens, Smith is a uniquely authoritative and inspiring voice.
George P. Smith Speaking Videos
Interview with George P. Smith, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2018
George P. Smith: Nobel Lecture in Chemistry 2018
George P. Smith Keynote Topics
In 1985, during a sabbatical visit at Duke University, George P. Smith made an observation that would take decades to reach its full implications — and ultimately yield the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history. In this keynote, Smith tells the story of phage display from the inside: the scientific reasoning, the early skepticism, the unexpected applications, and the Nobel recognition that arrived thirty-three years later. More than a biography of a technique, it is a meditation on how fundamental science actually works — how curiosity-driven research without obvious applications creates the foundations that transformative products are eventually built upon. An essential keynote for pharmaceutical, biotech, research, and innovation leadership audiences.
Life's diversity is the product of four billion years of random mutation and natural selection. Smith's insight was that the same process — accelerated and directed by the scientist — could be used to engineer proteins with precisely targeted functions, producing molecules that no rational design process could have conceived. In this keynote, he explores the principles and practice of directed evolution, what it has already made possible in drug discovery and industrial biotechnology, and where the field is heading as new display technologies, AI-assisted screening, and synthetic biology expand the toolkit. A scientifically rich and conceptually fascinating keynote for life sciences, biotech, and innovation audiences.
The journey from a laboratory technique to an FDA-approved drug is measured not in months but in decades — and it passes through basic research, applied science, commercial development, clinical trials, regulatory approval, and global manufacturing. Smith's phage display traversed every one of these stages, from its invention in 1985 to Humira's approval in 2002 to the Nobel Prize in 2018. In this keynote, he maps that journey from a scientist's perspective: what it requires, where it breaks down, and what it reveals about the relationship between academic science, pharmaceutical industry, and the patients who ultimately benefit. A thoughtful and surprisingly personal keynote for healthcare, pharma, biotech, and research policy audiences.
Great scientific breakthroughs do not emerge from strategic planning or hypothesis-driven project management alone — they emerge from cultures that tolerate uncertainty, reward curiosity, and give researchers the space to pursue questions that may not pay off for decades. Smith reflects on forty years at the University of Missouri, the conditions that enabled his Nobel Prize-winning work, and what institutions — universities, companies, and research organizations — must protect and nurture if they want to remain capable of fundamental discovery. An honest, reflective keynote for research institutions, innovation leaders, and any organization grappling with how to build cultures that generate genuinely new ideas rather than incremental improvements on existing ones.
FAQs on Booking George P. Smith
Why George P. Smith?
Booking George P. Smith means bringing a genuine Nobel Laureate whose work has directly saved and transformed millions of lives to your event. He is not a scientist whose research remains confined to journals — his invention of phage display led to Humira, the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history, and enabled a generation of antibody therapies now treating cancer, autoimmune disease, and chronic inflammation worldwide. On stage, Smith combines intellectual depth with the warmth and accessibility of a lifelong educator who spent forty years teaching undergraduate genetics at Mizzou. His story — of a solitary scientist pursuing an unfashionable question during a sabbatical visit, whose insight would take decades to reach its full implications — is one of the most compelling narratives in the history of science. For pharmaceutical, biotech, life sciences, and innovation leadership audiences, Smith delivers a keynote that is genuinely one of a kind. Aurum Speakers Bureau handles all aspects of the booking process.
What is phage display and why did it win the Nobel Prize?
Phage display is a laboratory technique developed by George P. Smith in 1985 that uses bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria — to display proteins on their surface and evolve them toward desired functions. By inserting foreign DNA into phage genes, researchers can generate enormous libraries of protein variants and then select for those with specific binding or functional properties, repeating the process to progressively refine the result. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Smith half of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery, citing it as an exemplary application of directed evolution — using the principles of genetic change and natural selection to engineer proteins that solve human problems. The other half of the prize went to Frances Arnold for directed evolution of enzymes, and Smith shared his half with Sir Gregory Winter, who extended phage display to the engineering of therapeutic antibodies.
How did George P. Smith's work lead to Humira?
Smith's invention of phage display in 1985 created a general platform for evolving proteins with targeted functions. In the early 1990s, Sir Gregory Winter and colleagues at Cambridge applied phage display specifically to the engineering of fully human antibodies — proteins designed to bind to disease-causing targets in the body with high specificity and minimal immune reaction. This platform was used by Cambridge Antibody Technology, in partnership with BASF Pharma, to develop adalimumab — a human antibody that blocks tumor necrosis factor, a key driver of inflammatory diseases. Adalimumab, marketed by AbbVie as Humira, was approved by the FDA in 2002 and went on to become the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history, generating over $200 billion in cumulative sales. Without Smith's original phage display technique, this entire development pathway would not have been possible.
What topics does Nobel Prize speaker George P. Smith cover?
Speaker George P. Smith addresses themes that span scientific discovery, innovation, and the long arc from fundamental research to real-world impact: how directed evolution and phage display transformed drug discovery and what they continue to enable in biotechnology; the process and culture of fundamental scientific research — how breakthroughs happen, what conditions enable them, and why the most important discoveries are often unfashionable at the time; the journey from laboratory invention to global medicine, and what the pharmaceutical and biotech industries can learn from it; and the role of university research in generating the foundational knowledge that commercial innovation depends on. His talks are particularly valued by audiences in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, life sciences, academic research institutions, and innovation leadership. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to explore the right format for your event.
How to book George P. Smith as a keynote speaker?
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How much is George P. Smith speaking fee?
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Can I book George P. Smith for a virtual keynote?
Yes, George P. Smith is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book George P. Smith for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
