Tim Smit CBE
Doctor of the University (HonDUniv)
Year conferred: 2006
Tim Smit is Chief Executive and co-founder of the Eden Project science, education and visitor centre in Cornwall, which is a charitable trust. More than 12 million people have visited what was once a sterile pit turned into a cradle of life containing world-class horticulture and startling architecture symbolic of human endeavour. Eden has contributed over £1 billion into the Cornish economy and is proud of its success in changing people’s perception of the potential for and the application of science, by communicating and interpreting scientific concepts through the use of art, drama and storytelling as well as living up to its mission to take a pivotal role in local regeneration.
Having trained as an archaeologist, Tim had success as a composer and record producer before moving to Cornwall and, with John Nelson, restored The Lost Gardens of Heligan, a once beautiful Victorian garden that had fallen into decay.
His pioneering role in the Eden Project has won him widespread recognition and he has received a variety of national awards including Outstanding Contribution to Tourism and Social Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and the prestigious Royal Society of Arts Albert Medal in 2003. Tim is a Trustee, Patron and Board Member of a number of statutory and voluntary bodies both locally and nationally. In 2002 he was awarded an Honorary CBE and was voted ‘Great Briton of 2007’ in the Environment category of the Morgan Stanley Great Britons Awards. .
