Tom Smits obtained his Ph.D. in 2007 on sub-standard language variation in German and Dutch at the Department of Linguistics at the University of Antwerp (Belgium), where he teaches German grammar and variational linguistics. In the Hamburg Senate in 2013, he was the first foreign scientist to be awarded the German Agathe Lasch Prize for research into Low German. Since 2008, as an English, German and CLIL teacher educator at the Antwerp School of Education (University of Antwerp), he has developed additional expertise in urban education, awarded with the 2019 UAntwerp Teaching Award. In 2021, he was appointed as Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University (South Africa) in recognition of his standing in the field of multilingualism and education.