William Smith is South Africa's best-known and most popular television science and mathematics teacher.

Early life and education

Smith was born in Grahamstown and attended St. Andrew's Prep before matriculating at Union High in Graaff-Reinet. He then went on to study at Rhodes University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and chemistry, followed by an honours degree (cum laude) in chemistry at the same institution. Following that, he obtained a masters degree from Natal University (Pietermaritzburg campus) in only seven months. Grahamstown is a town in the Eastern Cape Province, of the Republic of South Africa and is known in Xhosa as iRhini. ... Graaff Reinet, a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, 185 miles by rail NW by N of Port Elizabeth. ... Rhodes University is one of South Africas oldest and most famous university institutions. ... Jump to: navigation, search A bachelors degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts three or four years. ... Since antiquity, people have tried to understand the behavior of matter: why unsupported objects drop to the ground, why different materials have different properties, and so forth. ... // Introduction Chemistry is a large field encompassing many subdisciplines that often overlap with significant portions of other sciences. ... A bachelors degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts three or four years. ... Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate course of one or two years in duration. ... Jump to: navigation, search Location of Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province Pietermaritzburg is the capital of KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa. ... The Universitätscampus Wien, Austria ( details) Campus (plural: campi) is Latin for field or open space. English gets the words camp and campus from this origin. ...

Teaching career

After completing his studies, Smith joined the chemicals manufacturing company AECI, where his research led to a world-wide patent in safety fuse manufacture. He subsequently joined the Afrox company as a technical manager and was also in charge of their industrial training. Jump to: navigation, search A patent is a set of inclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or substance (known as an invention) which is new, inventive...

Deciding that he would rather pursue a teaching career, Smith left industry and moved to the education sector, where he started Star Schools - the aim of these schools are to provide value for money education with top class teachers. During the next twenty-five years he became famous throughout South Africa, where his schools have taught almost a million pupils of all races. Smith also won the Teacher of the Year award.

In 1990, Smith began producing The Learning Channel educational television programmes with the financial backing of Hylton Appelbaum, then executive director of the Liberty Life Foundation. As a result of his work on this programme, Smith was voted as one of the top three presenters on South African television in 1998. Jump to: navigation, search For the Temptations album, see 1990 (Temptations album) MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1998(MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Other achievements

Smith is also a renowned conservationist and owns the Featherbed Nature Reserve in Knysna where he currently (2004) lives. He is also the owner of Rivercat Ferries, which has several craft that cruise in the Knysna lagoon and out to sea. View over the lagoon, showing the Heads guarding the entrance to the sea Knysna (pronounced NIZE-nuh or NACE-nuh) is a town in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

He is also a co-presenter, with Jeremy Mansfield, of the popular South African television quiz show, A Word or 2, which now in its 10th season. Smith was also a judge for the Miss South Africa Pageant in 1998 and 1999. Jeremy Mansfield is a South African radio host, television presenter, comedian and part-time member of a boy-band Eastlife. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1999(MCMXCIX) is a common year starting on Friday Anno Domini (or the Current Era), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

The coelecanth "living fossil" was discovered by Smith's father, Professor James Leonard Brierley Smith, a renowned ichthyologist. Species Latimeria chalumnae Latimeria menadoensis Coelacanths (pronounced SEE-le-canth, meaning hollow spine in Greek) are lobe_finned fish with the pectoral and anal fins on fleshy stalks supported by bones, and the tail fin divided into three lobes, the middle one of which also has a stalk. ... Professor James Leonard Brierley Smith (born 26 October 1897 - died 7 January 1968) was a South African scientist who in 1938 was the first to identify a captured fish as a coelecanth, at the time thought long extinct. ... Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. ...

Smith was voted 86th in the Top 100 Great South Africans (see List of South Africans) in 2004. Jump to: navigation, search // Top 100 Great South Africans In September 2004, thousands of South Africans took part in an informal nationwide poll to determine the 100 Greatest South Africans of all time. ...