Brian Smith was born in London, U.K., in 1938. He received the M.S. degree in information engineering and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K., in 1964 and 1967, respectively. His Ph.D. work focused on the underwater applications of nonlinear acoustics.
He joined the Plessey Company at Ilford in 1957 who sponsored his schooling. After completing his doctoral work, he subsequently joined the teaching staff at the University of Birmingham, where he progressed from Lecturer to Reader. His main topics of research have been scattering phenomena in underwater acoustics and transducer theory and design. He retired from the University in 1995 and is currently employed by them on a part-time basis.