Claire F. Smith, PhD is Head of Anatomy at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. She is a co-author of Gray’s Surface Anatomy and Ultrasound.

Dr. Smith was previously a senior teaching fellow at the University of Southampton, Faculty of Medicine and a dissector at St. Georges Hospital Medical School.

Dr. Smith’s research focuses on understanding the student learning experience so that the learning can be improved. Her seminal research has led the field in understanding how students learn. Her recent focus has been on student psychometrics including; approaches to learning, learning styles, personality and spatial ability, and she has also published in the areas of assessment, standard setting and e-learning. Dr. Smith was the first in the UK to begin printing 3D anatomy body parts for students scanned from a donated human cadaver.

Dr. Smith teaches across all areas of gross anatomy and the anatomy related to histology, embryology, radiology, and living anatomy. She has been awarded teaching excellence awards by the Universities of Southampton, Brighton and Sussex, reflecting her ability to deliver high quality anatomy education. She was also awarded the titled Educator Innovator 2017 by the Association for the Study of Medical Education.

In addition to her duties at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Dr. Smith is an external examiner to a number of UK Universities and is a member (previous Chair) of the Education Committee for the Anatomical Society, advising and leading initiatives in anatomy education nationally and internationally. She is a member of the Court of Examiners for the Royal College of Surgeons and frequently examines on the MRCS. She is also the Secretary General for the European Federation of Experimental Morphology.