Robert A. Smith, PhD is a cancer epidemiologist and Senior-Vice President, Early Cancer Detection Science, at the American Cancer Society, where he leads the Early Cancer Detection Science Team (ECDS) team.  He also is Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University School of Medicine, and an Honorary Professor, Centre for Cancer Prevention, Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine at Queen Mary University of London. He received his PhD at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1984, spent three years at the Boston University School of Public Health, and six years at the CDC before joining ACS, where has principally focused on early cancer detection and screening guideline development, and cancer roundtables. At the ACS he leads the development of cancer screening guidelines, and special research and policy projects focused on cancer prevention and control, including being Vice-Chair of the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable, and Principle Investigator of the National Lung Cancer Roundtable. He is the author of nearly 400 peer-reviewed scientific articles, reports, and book chapters, and a frequent lecturer on cancer screening issues.  He serves on many international and national government and professional advisory committees and working groups, and has served on the working groups for three International Agency for Research Handbooks on Cancer (IARC) Cancer Screening Handbooks (breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and cervical cancer), and most recently two President’s Panels on Cancer (cervix and lung).  In 2011 he received the Medal of Honor from the International Agency for Research on Cancer.