Cyril Stanley Smith was one of the first scientists to study microstructure in a quantitative manner and paid particular attention to the aspects relevant to recrystallization and grain growth. Many of the topological relationships that we take for granted were first quantified by Smith. He also wrote many papers on the metallurgy of various systems and was a leader in the development of plutonium metallurgy during the Second World War. He is most famous for the development of a theory for pinning of grain boundaries by particles that was published by Clarence Zener, leading many people to refer to the limiting grain size as the "Zener Limit." When Mats Hillert was given this award in 2004, however, he made a strong argument for calling it the Smith-Zener limit since he felt that Smith was the one who had originated the idea and that Zener found it attractive enough in discussion with him to make the effort to publish it.

The C.S. Smith award is now awarded by the international committee of this conference series and has a strong history of awardees:

• 1998: William Mullins, USA
• 2001: Kurt Lücke, Germany
• 2004: Mats Hillert, Sweden
• 2007: John Humphreys, United Kingdom
• 2010: Roger Doherty, USA
• 2013: Günter Gottstein, Germany, and Lasar Shvindlerman, Russia

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