https://phys.org/news/2018-05-people-china.html

As an undergraduate at Harvard University, Smith studied environmental science and public policy, and researched wastewater reuse in urban areas. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant at the World Bank in Hanoi, Vietnam, where she was able to study firsthand how agriculture can affect ways of life. For Smith, resource availability and global agricultural research "have a lot to do with livelihoods and providing people with a safe environment to live in and trying to make our food system more equitable."

While in Vietnam, Smith realized she wanted to gain a stronger technical background to prepare her to study the resource availability problems of the future. After working with the World Bank for two years, Smith returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a graduate student in the MIT Technology and Policy Program.