Spencer Smith

he/him

  • Associate Professor of Physics
  • On Sabbatical 2024-2025
Spencer Smith, Faculty

Spencer Smith's work seeks to characterize the complexity inherent in chaotic fluid motion by uncovering dynamically relevant and topologically robust fluid structures. He investigates how these ideas are pertinent from micro-fluidic chips at the small scale to pollution tracking and prediction in oceanic flows on a much larger scale and touch on some of the deep questions in fluid dynamics, such as the nature of turbulence.

Spencer is also very interested in the intersection of art and physics, and he curated a show at the MHC Art Museum in fall 2017 on the science photographs of Berenice Abbott. 

Areas of Expertise

physics (fluid dynamics); math (dynamic systems theory & topology); computer science (finite elements, data structures, algorithm development, and numerical methods)

Education

  • Ph.D., M.S., Tufts University
  • B.A., Dartmouth College

Happening at ¹û¶³´«Ã½

Recent Campus News

Mount Holyoke College student Alexandra Mihailopol ’26 has been selected by Middlebury College as a recipient of a Projects for Peace grant. She will offer financial literacy education to women in rural Romania via her EmpowHER project.

Mount Holyoke senior Qiao Se Ong ’25 is among the 2025 cohort for Projects for Peace. Her project, based in Colombia, aims to address the impact of dam construction on local communities through creative workshops and collaborations with local artists.

Craig Woodard, Christianna Smith Professor of Biological Sciences, has been recognized as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Recent Publications

Smith, S.A., Gong, R. (2022). Braiding dynamics in active nematics. Frontiers in Physics, 10.

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