{{short description|American botanist (1906-1999)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Albert Charles Smith | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1906|4|5}} | birth_place = Springfield, Massachusetts, United States | death_date = {{death date and age|1999|5|23|1906|4|5|mf=y}} | death_place = | ethnicity = | fields = {{Unbulleted list|Botany}} | workplaces = National Museum of Natural History<br/>American Society of Plant Taxonomists<br/>United States National Academy of Sciences | alma_mater = Columbia University (BA, PhD) }} '''Albert Charles Smith''' (April 5, 1906 – May 23, 1999) was an American botanist who served as director of the National Museum of Natural History and Arnold Arboretum and was the former president of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.

==Life== Smith was born on April 5, 1906, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He received his bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1926 and his PhD in 1933.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=sysadmin|orig-date=1906 |year=1999|title=Smith, Albert C.|url=https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/auth_per_fbr_eacp446|access-date=2021-08-12|website=Smithsonian Institution Archives|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Columbia University|url=https://archive.org/details/catalogue1925colu|title=Catalogue|date=1897|publisher=New York|others=Columbia University Libraries}}</ref>

In 1928, he became a staff member of the New York Botanical Garden and made his first tropical trips to Colombia, Peru, and Brazil from 1926 to 1929.<ref name=":0" />

He later left New York City to be director of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard and worked there until 1948 when he joined the Smithsonian Institution.<ref name=":0" />

At the Smithsonian, he was first director of the Department of Botany and then a director of the National Museum of Natural History,<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2805012 "Notes and News"], Brittonia, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Oct. 26, 1959), pp. vi-viii</ref> and chaired several important scientific societies, such as the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.

From 1962 to 1963, he was the Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and a program director of the National Science Foundation.

Smith was elected to membership in the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1963,<ref>[http://www.nasonline.org/site/Dir/1690912667?pg=vprof&mbr=1005204&returl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nasonline.org%2Fsite%2FDir%2F1690912667%3Fpg%3Dsrch%26view%3Dbasic&retmk=search_again_link] National Academy of Sciences directory listing. Retrieved July 23, 2008</ref> and was a distinguished botanist who specialized in Pteridophytes and Spermatophytes at the University of Hawaiʻi until 1970. He moved to the University of Massachusetts until 1976 before returning to Hawaii to work at the National Tropical Botanical Garden. He formerly worked in the United States and Fiji.<ref>[http://asaweb.huh.harvard.edu:8080/databases/botanists?id=101394] Harvard University Index of Botanists. Retrieved July 23, 2008</ref>

{{botanist|A.C.Sm.|Smith, Albert Charles}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *Wagner, W. L. and D. H. Lorence. (2001) "Albert Charles Smith (1906-1999): a monumental botanist." ''Allertonia'' 8: 329–339.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Albert Charles}} Category:1906 births Category:1999 deaths Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Smithsonian Institution people Category:20th-century American botanists Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:Directors of museums in the United States Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:University of Hawaiʻi faculty Category:University of Massachusetts faculty Category:Harvard University staff

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