Emeritus Professor David Smith spent his entire academic career at the University of Oxford and held the Chair of Pharmacology since 1984. He was Deputy Head Faculty of Medical Science, Division of Medical Science and Professorial Fellow, Lady Margaret Hall. In 1985 the Medical Research Council appointed him Honorary Director of the newly established Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit in Oxford, which has pioneered ways of studying neural networks in the brain. In 1988 he established the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing (OPTIMA) – a clinicopathological longitudinal study. Alzheimer’s disease was his main research interest and he was the first Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, UK and is on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Food for the Brain Foundation.