Elizabeth Smith

Elizabeth F. Smith is the Paul M. Dauten, Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth College, where she has been a faculty member since 1998, achieving full professorship in 2010. She earned a B.A. in Biology from Agnes Scott College and a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Emory University, followed by postdoctoral training as an Associate in Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Minnesota. Throughout her career at Dartmouth, Smith held key leadership positions, including Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Sciences, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 2017 to September 2025. During her deanship, she improved transparency in tenure reviews, bolstered support for associate deans and chairs, strengthened sexual misconduct policies, secured funding for arts, humanities, and the E.E. Just Program, managed the shift to remote learning amid the pandemic, oversaw renovations of major academic facilities such as Dartmouth Hall and Thornton Hall, elevated five interdisciplinary programs to full departmental status, founded the Dialogue Project to train in collaborative dialogue skills, and spearheaded the merger of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences with Student Affairs. She now serves as Executive Director for Faculty Engagement in Dartmouth Dialogues, and a fund in her honor supports undergraduate research.

Smith's research centers on the cell and molecular biology of motile cilia and eukaryotic flagella, investigating regulatory mechanisms of ciliary motility and assembly using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model organism. Her studies elucidate calcium/calmodulin-mediated signal transduction pathways that control dynein motor activity, the structure and function of the central apparatus, radial spoke assembly, and intraflagellar transport dynamics. Her laboratory has received grant support from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Cancer Society, and March of Dimes Foundation. Notable publications include 'FAP57/WDR65 targets assembly of a subset of inner arm dyneins and connects to regulatory hubs in cilia' (2019, Molecular Biology of the Cell), 'PACRG and FAP20 form the inner junction of axonemal doublet microtubules and regulate ciliary motility' (2019, Molecular Biology of the Cell), 'The central apparatus of cilia and eukaryotic flagella' (2017, Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology), 'Microtubule binding protein PACRG plays a role in regulating specific ciliary dyneins during microtubule sliding' (2016, Cytoskeleton), and 'Pcdp1 is a central apparatus protein that binds Ca2+-calmodulin and regulates ciliary motility' (2010, Journal of Cell Biology).

Professional Email: Elizabeth.F.Smith@dartmouth.edu