Tat Smith is currently Dean of the University of Toronto 's Faculty of Forestry. In his most recent position as Professor and Head of the Department of Forest Science at Texas A&M University , he provided leadership to his department's research, education and extension programs related to sustainable forest management and ecology, urban and community forestry and spatial sciences. Texas A&M University has the largest agriculture program in the USA , of which the Department of Forest Science is one of 14 departments. Tat was previously Program Leader in Soil and Site Productivity at the New Zealand Forest Research Institute, Rotorua. In this position, he was responsible for leading research programs to develop sustainable forest management practices for New Zealand , and to develop cost-effective and environmentally acceptable systems for the land treatment of wastes. He was active in the New Zealand contribution to developing "Criteria and indicators for the conservation and sustainable management of temperate and boreal forests" (The Montreal Process), and was a member of the NZ Montreal Process Technical Advisory Committee, and the NZ Technical Advisory Group for Sustainable Forestry Management Systems for ISO TC/207/WG2. He has been a collaborator with IEA Bioenergy programs since 1985, and is author of numerous papers on the impacts of harvesting on long-term forest site productivity. Tat represented New Zealand in IEA Bioenergy at the TAC level, and was Leader of Activity 4.2 (Environmental Issues) in Task XII. Over the past 12 years, this Activity and its antecedents have developed an extensive group of over 200 international collaborators from across Europe, North America and Australasia .