Professor Ian E Smith trained in Edinburgh and at Harvard before coming to work at The Royal Marsden where he spent many years specialising in the medical treatment of breast cancer as well as lung cancer.His main interests are in the development of new treatments for breast cancer, particularly in its early stages, and he pioneered the use of pre-operative medical treatment before surgery for large breast cancers.He is a past Chairman of the Association of Cancer Physicians and of the UK National Cancer Research Institute Lung Cancer Group. He is on the steering committees of several major international clinical research trials and has been closely involved in the development of Herceptin for early breast cancer. He has published over 350 research papers, and lectures widely around the world. Honours include the Susan G Komen Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction and the William McGuire Memorial Lecture Award.