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J. L. B. Smith
J. L. B. Smith (26 October 1897 - 7 January 1968) was a South African ichthyologist, organic chemist and university professor. He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a ...view moreJ. L. B. Smith (26 October 1897 - 7 January 1968) was a South African ichthyologist, organic chemist and university professor. He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, at the time thought long extinct.
Born James Leonard Brierley Smith in Graaff-Reinet, the elder of two sons of Joseph Smith and his wife, Emily Ann Beck, he was educated at country schools at Noupoort, De Aar, and Aliwal North. He matriculated in 1914 from the Diocesan College, Rondebosch. He obtained a BA degree in Chemistry from the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1916 and an MSc degree in Chemistry at Stellenbosch University in 1918. He received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in England in 1922. After returning to South Africa, he became Senior Lecturer and later on an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.
Smith and his second wife Margaret worked jointly on the popular Sea Fishes of South Africa, which was first published in 1949, followed by other writings until 1968. Among these were over 500 papers on fish and the naming of some 370 new fish species.
He died in 1968 at the age of 70. In the same year, Rhodes University established the J. L. B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology in memory of J. L. B. Smith and to honour his lifetime achievements in ichthyology.view less