Walter H. F. Smith

{{short description|Geophysicist}}

{{other people|Walter Smith|Walter Smith (disambiguation)}}

{{use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}

{{use American English|date=January 2023}}

Walter H. F. Smith is a geophysicist, currently working in NOAA's Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry. He was formerly Chair of the scientific and technical sub-committee of GEBCO from 2003 to 2013.{{cite web |title=Technical Sub-Committee of Ocean Mapping (TSCOM) |url=https://www.gebco.net/news_and_media/new_gc_chair_2013.html |website=GEBCO |access-date=20 December 2022 |date=2013 |archive-date=December 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220215052/https://www.gebco.net/news_and_media/new_gc_chair_2013.html |url-status=live }}

Smith earned a BSc at the University of Southern California, and an MA, MPhil and PhD degrees at Columbia University. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography until joining NOAA in 1992.{{cite web |title=Walter H.F. Smith - Satellite Oceanography & Climatology Division |url=https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/Smith_WHF.php |website=NOAA |accessdate=19 November 2019 |archive-date=November 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117025849/https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/Smith_WHF.php |url-status=live }} Smith is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, nominated for his contributions to marine geodesy.{{cite web |title=UNION FELLOWS |url=https://www.agu.org/Honor-and-Recognize/Honors/Union-Fellows#4 |publisher=American Geophysical Union |access-date=23 December 2022 |archive-date=March 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220310044709/https://www.agu.org/Honor-and-Recognize/Honors/Union-Fellows#4 |url-status=live }}

Along with Pål Wessel, Smith created the Generic Mapping Tools, an open-source collection of computer software tools for processing and displaying geographic and Cartesian datasets.{{cite journal |author1=Wessel |author2=Smith |title=New, improved version of generic mapping tools released |journal=EOS |date=1998 |volume=79 |issue=47 |pages=579 |doi=10.1029/98EO00426 |publisher=American Geophysical Union |bibcode=1998EOSTr..79..579W |doi-access=free }} Smith and Wessel developed and maintain the Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database.{{cite journal |author1=Wessel |author2=Smith |title=A global, self-consistent, hierarchical, high-resolution shoreline database |journal=Journal of Geophysical Research |date=1996 |volume=101 |issue=B4 |pages=8741–8743 |doi=10.1029/96JB00104 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1231376/files/article.pdf |access-date=23 December 2022 |publisher=American Geophysical Union |bibcode=1996JGR...101.8741W |archive-date= |archive-url= |url-status= }}