MBBS, FRCP, FFOM, DAvMed, DCH DRCOG FAsMA, FRAeS

Dr Evans worked for the NHS and British Airways prior to moving to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in 1993. She was the CAA’s Chief Medical Officer between 2005 and 2019, subsequently working as a CAA Consultant Advisor. She chaired the group that drafted the European Union aviation medical requirements and was the founder and Chair of the European Aviation Medical Assessors’ Council.

In 2015 she was a member of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Task Force on Measures Following the Accident of Germanwings Flight 9525. She was awarded the MBE in 2018 for services to aviation medicine.

Dr David Powell is a specialist in occupational medicine based in New Zealand. His professional background is mostly in aviation, including as an Air Force flight surgeon, leading medical services for airlines, academic roles and also consulting for a variety of aviation organisations including ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organisation).

Dr Powell was the Medical Advisor to the International Air Transport Association (IATA, the global body representing the world’s major airlines) from 2018-2023.

He has around 20 publications mostly in aerospace medicine and holds commercial aeroplane and helicopter licences.

Professor David Gradwell is the immediate Past-President of the International Academy of Aviation & Space Medicine. He is also a Past President of the Aerospace Medical Association, the first British physician to have held both posts.

David served as a senior medical officer in the Royal Air Force and there held appointments as the Consultant Adviser in Aviation Medicine and Whittingham Professor of Aviation Medicine. After almost 30 years in the RAF he retired from the service to take up the post of Professor of Aerospace Medicine at King’s College London where, among other activities, he directed the Diploma in Aviation Medicine course for UK and international doctors as well as establishing a specialist NHS aeromedical clinic at St Thomas’ Hospital, London.

David initiated the establishment of the national training programme for future UK specialists in Aviation & Space Medicine, under the direction of the UK General Medical Council. He is the senior editor of Ernsting’s Aviation & Space Medicine, the UK’s standard aeromedical textbook, now in its sixth edition, and is the Emeritus Professor Aerospace Medicine at King’s.

MD, MPH, FAsMA

Dr. James Vanderploeg is a Past-President of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine and a Past President of the Aerospace Medical Association.  He is Board Certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in both Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Medicine. His numerous publications include medical results from research using centrifuge exposure to simulate the G forces of a suborbital space flight.

Dr. Vanderploeg has over 40 years of experience in aerospace medicine with a career spanning medical support for the NASA Space Shuttle program, serving as Chief Medical Officer and now Senior Medical Advisor for Virgin Galactic, and engaging in the clinical practice of civilian aviation medicine. He is Adjunct Professor of Aerospace Medicine in the Division of Aerospace Medicine within the School of Public and Population Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.

As Virgin Galactic’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Vanderploeg was responsible for developing and implementing the medical programs for spaceflight participants, Virgin Galactic pilots, and other employees.  His previous work also included serving as the Executive Director of the FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation; evaluation of airline pilots seeking special issuance authorization for medical certification following recovery from medical or psychological problems; and training physicians in the specialty of aerospace medicine.