David Smith is a member of the SPCTS laboratory and a full professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Céramique Industrielle in Limoges (France), an institution more than 120 years old, which has just merged with the University of Limoges since 1 January 2017. He graduated in 1980 from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland with a B.Sc. Honours degree in physics and followed up with graduate studies at Queen’s University, Canada leading to an M.Sc. (1982) and a Ph.D. (1986). This work in the field of applied physics, involved a.c. impedance measurements of -alumina and zirconia ceramics as well as the associated electrode reactions. After the Ph.D., David Smith joined the staff at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Céramique Industrielle (ENSCI) leading to appointment as assistant professor in 1988 and full professor in 2002. From 1991 to 2007, he was in charge of international relations at ENSCI promoting the growth of a network of student exchanges with institutions involved with ceramics in Europe, Japan and N. America. In particular he coordinated a 3 year SOCRATES CDI teaching development project on ceramics with 6 partner Universities across Europe. From 2008 to end 2014, David Smith was director of the “Groupe d’Etude des Matériaux Hétérogènes” (GEMH), a research laboratory of 60 people devoted to heterogeneous mineral materials. In research, David Smith is author or co-author of 89 reviewed papers and 1 patent. He started working first on electrical properties and in particular, from 1987 to 1997, the relations between preparation, microstructure and electric behavior of ceramic superconductors. Since 1998, with the creation of the GEMH, his research activities have been devoted to thermal properties of mineral materials with special attention on the role of pores and grain boundaries for thermal conductivity of oxide ceramics. The group in Limoges has now published more than 50 papers in this domain. Recent developments concern the thermophysical behaviour of green bodies during drying and firing. D. Smith has been a member of the Groupe Français de la Céramique (GFC) since 1988. He represented the GFC on the Educational Working Committee of the European Ceramic Society, participating in the jury of the student speaking contest continuously from 2005 to 2015. He acted as chair of the organizing committee of the first European Ceramic Society Summer School, held in Limoges in June 2013 on the theme of “Ceramic Science and Technology for the 21st Century” as well as being part of the local committee for the 13th European Ceramic Society meeting.