Thomas Smith is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n finance

Finance

"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...

 academic. Smith has been a professor at the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

 since 2003. Prior appointments were at the Australian Graduate School of Management

Australian Graduate School of Management

The MBA program of the Australian School of Business is known as the AGSM MBA, based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded as the Australian Graduate School of Management in 1977, the AGSM MBA is consistently ranked at the top of the national rankings and amongst one of the top MBA...

 (1995–2002) and Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

 (1988–1995).

He completed his PhD

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 studies at Stanford Graduate School of Business

Stanford Graduate School of Business

The Stanford Graduate School of Business is one of the professional schools of Stanford University, in Stanford, California and is broadly regarded as one of the best business schools in the world.The Stanford GSB offers a general management Master of Business Administration degree, the Sloan...

, after undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Queensland

University of Queensland

The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...

. Smith's research has been published in the leading financial economic journals, including the Journal of Finance

Journal of Finance

The Journal of Finance is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Finance Association. It was established in 1946. Its current editors are Campbell R. Harvey and John R. Graham...

, Journal of Financial Economics

Journal of Financial Economics

The Journal of Financial Economics or JFE, is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the theory of financial economics. Together with the Journal of Finance and the Review of Financial Studies, it is considered to be among the top three finance journal. The editor is Bill Schwert...

and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis

Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis

The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis is an academic journal published by the School of Business Administration at the University of Washington in cooperation with the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business and New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business. It...

. Current research includes work on stock

Share (finance)

A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in...

 volatility

Volatility (finance)

In finance, volatility is a measure for variation of price of a financial instrument over time. Historic volatility is derived from time series of past market prices...

, market microstructure

Market microstructure

Market microstructure is a branch of finance concerned with the details of how exchange occurs in markets. While the theory of market microstructure applies to the exchange of real or financial assets, more evidence is available on the microstructure of financial markets due to the availability of...

 and dividend policy

Dividend policy

Dividend policy is concerned with taking a decision regarding paying cash dividend in the present or paying an increased dividend at a later stage. The firm could also pay in the form of stock dividends which unlike cash dividends do not provide liquidity to the investors, however, it ensures...

.