Amos Brittain Smith III

Amos Brittain Smith, III, age 80, of Merion Station, PA, died on February 3, 2025, due to a traumatic brain injury sustained in a fall.

He was born on August 26, 1944, in Lewisburg, PA, and was the only child of Mildred E. (Cornelius) Smith and Dr. Amos B. Smith, Jr. In 1966 he was the recipient of the first combined B.S.-M.S. degree in Chemistry from Bucknell University. After a year of medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, he studied at The Rockefeller University in New York City, graduating with a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1972.

After graduation he accepted a joint appointment at the Monell Chemical Senses Center and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1981 he became a full member of the Monell Center and rose to the rank of Professor of Chemistry. From 1988-1996 he served as Chair of the Chemistry Department. He held the Rhodes-Thompson Endowed Professorship of Chemistry from 1990 until his move to Emeritus status in 2024.

Dr. Smith’s research centered on the synthesis of architecturally complex organic molecules, many with biological significance. This included ongoing collaborative projects aimed at inhibiting HIV entry into susceptible cells and its propagation in infected cells. Dr. Smith authored over 800 research papers, and mentored more than 130 Ph.D. students and 200 postdoctoral fellows. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the American Chemical Society research journal, Organic Letters, serving in that capacity for 20 years.

His research brought him many honors including the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon from the government of Japan, the Yamada-Koga Prize from the Japan Research Foundation, and an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was also named a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was an Honorary Member of the Kitasato Institute, Tokyo, Japan, and a member of the International Scientific Council of the ´Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielle de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI), Paris, France. He was honored to receive the William H. Nichols Medal from the New York Section of the American Chemical Society, the Kitasato Medal from the Kitasato Institute, and the Allan R. Day Award from the Philadelphia Organic Chemists’ Club. The Royal Society of Chemistry in the U.K. awarded him the Simonsen Medal, the Centenary Medal, and the Perkin Prize for Organic Chemistry.

Amos was an avid fly fisherman on the trout streams of Pennsylvania, Montana, and Wyoming. He enjoyed yearly salmon fishing trips to the River Thurso in Scotland and to the Southland region of New Zealand for trout. Closer to home he enjoyed golf at his local club and on the courses at his vacation home on Fripp Island, SC.

Amos is survived by his wife of 56 years, Janet, and by their son, A. Matthew Smith, IV, of Chittenango, NY, their daughter Kathryn S. Cobb, and their son-in-law, L. Travis Cobb, both of Barnardsville, NC.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 15, at 1 PM at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr, PA, with live-streaming and a video recording available on the church website (https://www.bmpc.org) for those unable to travel. Interment will be in Lewisburg Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Chemistry Department of the University of Pennsylvania (https://www.chem.upenn.edu/giving-penn-chemistry) or to Bucknell University (https://www.bucknell.edu/azdirectory/university-advancement/ways-give) with a designation for the Chemistry Department.