Lawrence Smith

Smith has been a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a researcher at the Animal Reproduction Research Centre, Université de Montréal, since 1989. Prior to that, he was a member of the research group at the Roslin Institute of Edinburgh, led by Ian Wilmut, the same group that produced the famous sheep “Dolly”.

Smith obtained his veterinary degree from São Paulo State University in Brazil, his MSc in Animal Genetics from the University of Edinburgh and his Ph.D. in Mammalian Embryology at the Roslin Institute. While Smith was completing his Ph.D. at Roslin, he developed the ‘cloning by nuclear transfer’ technique. The experiments he performed triggered the research that led to the eventual birth of “Dolly”, the first animal to be cloned from a cell derived from an adult animal.

Smith made history again when he successfully produced a cloned calf from the worldwide famous Holstein bull Hannoverhill Starbuck (“Starbuck II” was born in September 2000). Since the spring of 2001, Smith was held a prestigious Canada Research Chair in Animal Cloning and Biotechnology.