Vaclav Smil
Scientist and policy analyst
Scientist and policy analyst Vaclav Smil is Czech-Canadian. His books and papers cover energy, environment and food, among other fields.
8 summaries 2h 26 min of listening
Born 1943 in Plzeň, Czech Republic
About Vaclav Smil
Vaclav Smil was born in Plzeň in 1943 and studied in Prague and at Pennsylvania State University, where he earned a doctorate in geography. He left Czechoslovakia for the United States in 1969 and joined the University of Manitoba in 1972. He is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus in its Faculty of Environment. His research crosses energy, environment, food, population, economics, history and public policy, and he has also studied China's energy, food and environmental affairs. His output includes more than 400 papers and 35 books, with Making the Modern World and Should We Eat Meat? among them. Smil is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He also won the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology, the first person from outside the US to do so. He has been an invited speaker at over 250 conferences and workshops, and has consulted for American, European and other international institutions.