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Cedric M. Smith

Born: 1927
Death: 2014

Cedric M. Smith, professor emeritus of pharmacology and toxicology, and founding director of UB’s Research Institute on Addictions, died June 3 in Tampa, Fla. He was 87.

A graduate of Oklahoma State University and the University of Illinois, Smith also received a master’s degree in pharmacology from the University of Illinois Graduate College and a medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

He joined the UB faculty 1966, serving as chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology from 1966-73. He was director of the New York State Research Institute on Addictions when it was founded at UB in 1970; he headed the institute until 1979.

Smith published widely on his research in neuropharmacology and psychopharmacology, and served on the editorial boards of several professional journals. His publications included four books, among them “Essentials of Pharmacology,” co-written and edited with UB faculty member Alan Reynard.

A member of numerous professional societies, he served on the Board of Regents of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology.

He also served a five-year term on the Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Information Science of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), which was charged with expanding the USP drug and therapeutic-information database that had recently combined with the AMA Drug Evaluations database. The combined database represented a national consensus of drug and therapeutic information that was used by medicine, pharmacy, nursing and other health professions.

A portion of the Fundamentals of Pharmacology course Smith coordinated in the UB medical school was adopted by the USP as a model for a national medical student competition on writing standard drug information for patients.

Smith retired from UB in 2000.

*From UB Now, July 17, 2014.


Affiliation(s): Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Record Group(s): 19
Biographical File Contains:
  • Obituary