Professor Tracy Smart AO, Air Vice Marshal (Ret.)
Professor Smart is a medical doctor, health leader, aerospace medicine specialist, and retired Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) senior officer.
She is currently Professor, Military and Aerospace Medicine at the Australian National University (ANU), a Mission Specialist in Space Medicine at the University’s Institute for Space and was ANU’s COVID-19 Public Health Lead from August 2020 to March 2022.
During 35 years of RAAF service, Prof Smart served on overseas deployments; undertook aerospace medicine-based exchange tours with the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force. She was twice Commanding Office of the RAAF’s Institute of Aviation Medicine and served as Surgeon General of the ADF and Commander Joint Health from 2015 to 2019. She transferred to the RAAF Specialist Reserve in early 2020.
Prof Smart’s other current roles include:
Immediate Past President, Australasian College of Aerospace Medicine; Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne; Strategic Advisor – LGBTI Inclusion, Department of Defence; and membership of several Boards and committees including the: Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal; ANU National Security College Advisory Board; Australian Football League’s Mental Health Steering Group; Australian Space Agency’s Technical Advisory Group on Space Medicine & Life Sciences; Australian War Memorial Development Project Veterans’ Advisory Group; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Veteran’s Advisory Group; and Health Security Systems Australia’s Divisional Advisory Panel.
Prof Smart is a Fellow of both the Aerospace Medicine Association and the Australasian College of Aerospace Medicine; and is Academician of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine. She completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, has authored 15 publications, and is a regular keynote speaker in the areas of leadership, mental health, public health, cultural change, and diversity. Professor Smart was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012 and an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2019 Queens’ Birthday Honours List
Deepak Gaur AVSM, Air Vice Marshal (Ret.)
Air Vice Marshal Deepak Gaur AVSM is a graduate of AFMC, Pune and was commissioned in December 1983. He did his MD (Aviation Medicine) from IAM, Bangalore in 1991. He is also an alumnus of Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.
A Fellow of the Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine (ISAM), AVM Gaur has several scientific publications and presentations to his credit, both national and international. He is a recipient of the Chief of the Naval Staff award for best published scientific paper in Medicine and Allied specialties in 2007.
Air Vice Marshal Deepak has contributed Chapters in two textbooks including the API Textbook of Medicine.
The Officer has been awarded commendations by Chief of the Air Staff in 2007 and 2013. In recognition of his meritorious service, he was awarded Ati Vishisht Seva Medal on 26 January 2017 by Honourable President of India.
A Professor and Examiner of Aerospace Medicine, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka, was appointed as the first ever Consultant in Aerospace Medicine in March 2014. He has served as Commandant of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, IAF, Bangalore, PDMS (Specialist) and as Commandant Command Hospital Air Force Bangalore. He retired on 31st August 2021 after almost 38 years of service.
Derek Knight MD (Colonel, Ret., USAF)
Dr. Derek Knight, MD is a former US Air Force fighter pilot and pilot-physician. He began his career as a fighter pilot, flying the F-4G Wild Weasel. He flew in combat during the first Gulf War, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions on the opening night of the war while flying over Baghdad. Following his service as a Wild Weasel pilot, he attended medical school at the University of California, then completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio and completed the USAF Flight Surgeon course at Brooks AFB.
After residency he served as an Emergency Medicine attending physician at Wilford Hall and deployed as a Critical Care Air Transport Team leader in Afghanistan. Following his deployment, he entered the USAF Pilot-Physician Program, serving as an instructor pilot in the T-6 Texas and as the Air Education and Training Command MAJCOM Pilot-Physician at Randolph AFB. During this assignment, he led the Office of the Secretary of Defense Spatial Disorientation Training Device Foreign Comparison Test program, evaluating spatial disorientation training devices for potential acquisition by the USAF.
While there he served in a variety of flight test and training roles, including air sickness desensitization, Typhoon pilot G-training, G-protection flight trials and a host of other flight and centrifuge trials evaluating helmets, masks, G-suits, and other physiologic devices. Following his tour with the RAF, he was assigned as Director of the Human Performance Directorate at the 711th Human Performance Wing and as the Director of the USAF Pilot-Physician Program. While there he was instrumental in the development of a program to send flight surgeons to USAF pilot training as a pipeline for the Pilot Physician Program.
He was selected by the Air Combat Command Director of Operations to serve as one of three key players leading the F-22 physiological incident investigation. During his career, he has accumulated nearly 3,500 flying hours in military and civilian aircraft, including the F-4 Phantom, T-6 Texan, Hawk T1, T-37, T-38, F-16, F-15, and Eurofighter Typhoon. Following his military career, he entered medical practice as an Emergency Medicine Physician and works as a Research Monitor for altitude chamber and centrifuge studies performed for the 711th Human Performance Wing and KBR at Brooks City Base in San Antonio.
