{{Short description|Dutch paleontologist (born 1948)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Jan Smit | image = Paleonthologist Jan Smit.jpg | caption = Smit in 2017, looking at rocks | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1948|04|08|df=y}} | birth_place = The Hague, Netherlands | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Paleontologist | fields = Event stratigraphy | workplaces = Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | alma_mater = University of Amsterdam | thesis_title = A Catastrophic Event at the Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary | thesis_year = 1981 | awards = {{UBL| Barringer Medal (2012) | Van Waterschoot van der Gracht Medal (2016) }} | years_active = | known_for = Alvarez hypothesis | notable_works = }}
'''Jan Smit''' (born 8 April 1948) is a Dutch paleontologist. He was affiliated with the Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam from 2003 to 2013 as a professor of event stratigraphy, studying rapid changes in the geological record related to mass extinctions.<ref>{{cite web |date=2013 |title=Afscheidssymposium van hoogleraar Jan Smit |url=http://www.vu.nl/nl/nieuws-agenda/agenda/2013/okt-dec/08-nov-afscheidssymposium-vu-hoogleraar-jan-smit.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150207151402/http://www.vu.nl/nl/nieuws-agenda/agenda/2013/okt-dec/08-nov-afscheidssymposium-vu-hoogleraar-jan-smit.asp |archive-date=7 February 2015 |website=vu.nl |language=nl}}</ref>
== Career == Smit graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1974 with a master's degree in geology. In 1981 he obtained his PhD (''cum laude'') at the same university.
Smit's main area of research is on the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which ended the Cretaceous period and killed all non-avian dinosaurs. He was an early researcher into the now-accepted belief that an asteroid impact was responsible for their extinction; his dissertation, titled "A Catastrophic Event at the Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary", was related to Luis and Walter Alvarez's recently published theory on the extinction event. The explanation is known as the Alvarez hypothesis, but was proposed independently by Smit, despite his later publication.
Luis Alvarez described Smit as "a KT [Cretaceous–Tertiary] expert [who] has studied more KT sites around the world than anyone else".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-02-07 |title=Een portret van Jan Smit |url=http://www.dinosaurus.net/portret/smit.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150207173038/http://www.dinosaurus.net/portret/smit.htm |archive-date=2015-02-07 |access-date=2020-11-01 |url-status=usurped |language=nl}}</ref> In 2019 ''The New Yorker'' labelled Smit as a "world authority" on the impact and extinction event.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died|title=The Day the Dinosaurs Died|magazine=The New Yorker|date=29 March 2019}}</ref>
== Personal life == Smit's daughter is Renske Smit, a researcher at the Astrophysics Research Institute at Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, England. She is one of only a handful of UK-based astronomers in the core survey teams of the James Webb Space Telescope.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Administrator |date=2018-04-07 |title=Dr Renske Smit wins The 2018 MERAC Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in Observational Astrophysics |url=https://www.astro.phy.cam.ac.uk/news/dr-renske-smit-wins-the-2018-merac-prize-for-the-best-doctoral-thesis-in-observational-astrophysics |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=www.astro.phy.cam.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Astrophysicist Renske Smit reacts to seeing 'furthest corner of known Universe'. |url=https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/about-us/news/articles/2022/12/9/james-webb-renske-smit |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=www.ljmu.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref> Smit's son-in-law is Robert Crain, a professor of theoretical astrophysics at the same university.<ref>{{Cite tweet|number=1538210559727910913|user=rcrain_astro|title=Amusingly this is, literally, my father-in-law, aka jansmitforgeron|author=Rob Crain}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Robert Crain |url=http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/about-us/staff-profiles/faculty-of-engineering-and-technology/astrophysics-research-institute/robert-crain |access-date=2022-06-19 |website=www.ljmu.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref>
== Awards == In 2016, he was awarded the Van Waterschoot van der Gracht Medal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Waterschoot van de Gracht penning |url=https://research.vu.nl/en/prizes/waterschoot-van-de-gracht-penning |access-date=2022-06-29 |website=Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam |language=nl}}</ref>
A main-belt asteroid, 19140 Jansmit, is named after Smit.<ref>{{Cite web |title=IAU Minor Planet Center |url=https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=19140 |access-date=2022-06-19 |website=minorplanetcenter.net}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smit, Jan}} Category:1948 births Category:Dutch paleontologists Category:University of Amsterdam alumni Category:Living people Category:Barringer Medal winners Category:Scientists from The Hague