Smit leads the advanced mathematical modelling research group that focuses on hydrodynamic, sedimentation and ecosystems modelling. She has a background in physics and mathematics and holds a PhD in biosystems from the University of Pretoria. She joined the CSIR in 2009 as a postdoc in biophotonics and was appointed permanently as a senior researcher in 2011.

Smit’s research background and interests are multidisciplinary and has included multidisciplinary computational biophysics and bio-engineering; focusing on the development of computational models of biological systems. Currently, her research focuses on the application of conservation laws in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) that are applied to coastal system dynamics and earth systems modelling, as well as CFD/DEM (discreet element modelling) coupling and multi-physics/multi-scale modelling.

Expertise: Multi-physics/multi-scale modelling; Computational biophysics and bio-engineering