Scott Smith, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Research, School of Health Professions | Professor & Chair
Professor & Chair
- Endowed Title
- Distinguished Teaching Professor; Jere H. Mitchell, M.D. Distinguished Professorship in Clinical Research
- School
- School of Health Professions
- Department
- Applied Clinical Research | Internal Medicine | Office of the Dean - School of Health Professions
- Graduate Programs
- Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Smith earned his bachelor’s degree in biology/chemistry from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas and his master’s and doctoral degrees in biomedical science from the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Internal Medicine/Cardiology at UT Southwestern in 2002 and joined the faculty shortly thereafter. He is an active member of the American Heart Association, American Physiological Society and American College of Sports Medicine. He has served as the Director of the David M Crowley Research and Rehabilitation Laboratory within the School of Health Professions. In addition, he is a former member of the University of Texas System Faculty Advisory Council in which he served on the Executive Sub-Committee on Health Affairs.
Dr. Smith's laboratory has been studying autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system during exercise in both humans and animals for over 15 years. Currently, the lab's research focuses on determining the mechanisms underlying alterations in circulatory control after the development of hypertension. More specifically, the lab is actively investigating the central and peripheral mechanisms mediating the abnormal alterations in sympathetic nerve activity, blood pressure and skeletal muscle blood flow with the pathogenesis of disease. Recently, the lab has been focusing on determining the mechanisms by which exercise training improves cardiovascular function during physical activity in hypertension with the goals of identifying: i) novel treatments for the abnormal response to exercise in the disease and ii) new treatment therapies for the disease.