Jan Smit (paleontologist)

Jan Smit
Smit in 2017 looking at rocks
Born	(1948-04-08) 8 April 1948 (age 76) The Hague, Netherlands
Alma mater	University of Amsterdam
Occupation	Paleontologist
Known for	Alvarez hypothesis
Awards	Barringer Medal (2012) Van Waterschoot van der Gracht Medal (2016)
Scientific career
Fields	Event stratigraphy
Institutions	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Thesis	A Catastrophic Event at the Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary  (1981)

Jan Smit (born 8 April 1948) is a Dutch paleontologist. He was affiliated with the Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam from 2003 to 2013 as a professor of event stratigraphy, studying rapid changes in the geological record related to mass extinctions.^[1]