Barry Smith, PhD, FACMI

As an undergraduate, Barry Smith studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Oxford, before earning his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester in 1976. Currently, he holds the position of Julian Park Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Computer Science, and Neurology at the University of Buffalo in New York.

As evidenced from his professorial titles, Smith occupies both the role of philosopher and scientist, blending the two areas of study through his dual focus on ontology and biomedical informatics. Smith has published articles in as many scientific publications as he has in philosophical publications, and his approach can be roughly described as applied ontology.

Smith’s influence is notable outside of academia, such as his involvement with global health organizations in advancing biomedical informatics, and even with the U.S. Army and Air Force.

Working Groups

  • Creation and Enhancement
  • Research Ethics
  • Ontology of Health and Disease

Related Links

Director, National Center for Ontological Research

Fellow, American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI)

Google Scholar:  Citations

PhilPapers: Barry Smith

Academia.edu: Barry Smith

Selected Publications

The Ontology for Biomedical Investigations
A Bandrowski, R Brinkman, M Brochhausen, MH Brush, B Bug, ... PLoS ONE 11 (4) 2016

Dealing with social and legal entities in the obstetric and neonatal domain
Fernanda Farinelli, Mauricio Almeida, Peter Elkin, Barry Smith, 2016. Proceedings of the Joint International Conference on Biological Ontology and BioCreative 1747 CEUR

Dealing with elements of medical encounters: an approach based on ontological realism
Fernanda Farinelli, Peter Almeida, Mauricio: Elkin, Barry Smith 2016 Proceedings of the Joint nternational Conference on Biological Ontology and BioCreative 1747 CEUR

The Neurological Disease Ontology
Mark Jensen, Alexander P Cox, Naveed Chaudhry, Marcus Ng, Donat Sule, William Duncan, Patrick Ray, Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, Barry Smith, Alan Ruttenberg, Kinga Szigeti, Alexander D Diehl, 2013/12/6 J. Biomedical Semantics 4 42

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