Smith ya yi aiki a Jami'ar Pennsylvania a 1955 kuma ya sami digiri na Ph.D. daga Jami'ar Chicago a 1959 tare da takaddama na shafuka takwas kawai. Ya yi aiki a Bell Labs a Murray Hill, New Jersey daga 1959 zuwa ritaya a 1986, inda ya jagoranci bincike a cikin sababbin lasers da na'urorin semiconductor. A lokacin da yake aiki, an ba Smith da dama na takardun shaida kuma daga bisani ya jagoranci sashen na'urar VLSI. A 1969, Smith da Willard Boyle sun kirkiro na'urar da aka haɗa da caji (CCD), wanda suka karbi lambar yabo ta Stuart Ballantine na Cibiyar Franklin a 1973, 1974 IEEE N. Morris Liebmann Memorial Award, Charles Draper Stark Prize, 2006 da Nobel Prize a Physics Tambaya: Wanene Smith ya yi aiki a?
Rundunar Sojan Ruwa ta Amurka