Having worked in aviation medicine for over twenty years, Rui Pombal is the Director of the TAP Group Health Services Aviation and Travel Medicine Centre in Lisbon, Portugal.

Rui holds a Master’s in Health Sciences (Aviation Medicine) and is an EASA and FAA certified medical examiner. His other areas of special interest are travel medicine and clinical assessment in pharmacovigilance.

He is currently serving as President of the Portuguese Aerospace Medicine Association, Member of the Board of the Portuguese Society of Travel Medicine, Chairperson of the ASMA Air Transport Medicine Committee, and member of the Selectors Committee of IAASM.

Warren Silberman, D.O., MPH currently AME and Consultant. He was the prior Manager of Medical Certification for the FAA and more recently medical officer in FAA Aerospace Medical Education, aircraft accident investigation, and manager of the Occupational Medical Clinic at the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute.

MS, CAsP, FAsMA, FRAeS

Jeff is the Executive Director of the Aerospace Medical Association. He assumed his Executive Director role in January 2010 following 34 years of service as a scientist and officer in the US Air Force, retiring as a Colonel. He holds a BS in Biology (magna cum laude) from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and an MS in Physiology from Rutgers University. Jeff is board-certified in Aerospace Physiology (CAsP), is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association (FAsMA), and is also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS).

During his Air Force career, Jeff served as an AF Aerospace Physiologist and was selected by the Air Force Surgeon General as the first-ever Lieutenant Colonel to serve as the Chief of AF Aerospace Physiology. Jeff held a number of command and leadership positions from 1999 until he retired from the Air Force as the Deputy Command Surgeon for the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH and as 14th Chief of the AF Biomedical Sciences Corps.

As Executive Director of the Aerospace Medical Association, Jeff serves as the Chief Operating Officer of a 2,000 member professional association. The Aerospace Medical Association is organized exclusively for charitable, educational, and scientific purposes. It is the largest, most-representative professional membership organization in the fields of aerospace medicine and human performance.

Dr. Adrian Macovei has been working in the aerospace medicine field since 2000. He started out as a doctor in an air force base and by the end of the same year was transferred to the National Institute of Aerospace Medicine where he still works today, as deputy commander. He has occupied several roles in the institute, including general practitioner, research office chief, hyperbaric laboratory chief, research and physiology department chief.

He has been an AsMA member since 2012, an AsMA associate fellow since 2018 and an Academy Member since 2013. He was elected as a Member of the Selectors Committee in 2021.

His interests in aerospace medicine are varied, from physiology and human factors to regulatory procedures. He has published widely and relevant research includes the effect of photobiomodulation therapy on normal skin oxygenation, simulated altitude exposure assessment by hyperspectral imaging, G-induced nonspecific symptoms, spatial disorientation and white-out and brown-out phenomena on ground – water interface. He coauthored the book, ‘Extreme Conditions Medicine’.

Since 2015 he was a teaching assistant in University of Medicine and Pharmacy Craiova, ‘Extreme Conditions Medicine’ discipline and now he is a lecturer in the same discipline. He has both certificates of advanced studies in Aerospace Medicine and in Hyperbaric Medicine, and he is also a lecturer for these advanced studies. He has a Ph.D. in medicine, physiology branch. Since 2020 he has been certified and practises as a class 2 AME within the EASA system.

Dr Quast is a Director of an Aeromedical Center in Germany, an FAA Senior Medical Examiner and the holder of a Commercial Pilot License.

BSc MB BS DAvMed GDOHS MMed(CritCare) FACAsM FAsMA

John Affleck, an Australian specialist in Aerospace Medicine, trained at the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine (DAvMed 1991). He has worked as an aviation medical examiner for over 30 years and has provided consultant services to Qantas and to the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority. He is a private pilot.

John’s particular expertise and interest is air medical transport. Appointed Chief Medical Officer in 1988 with the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, he subsequently engaged in international repatriations of critical patients by medical jet. He provides expert advice and governance oversight to two Australia-based medical air transport companies.

Dr Affleck is a Foundation Fellow of the Australian College of Aerospace Medicine and a regular speaker at Australian aerospace conferences. He has held lecturing appointments with UNSW and Notre Dame University and undertaken research in motion sickness and substance-use rehabilitation. A Medical Review Officer, he works with pilots rehabilitating from drug and substance use and with the Australian HIMS initiative (HAAG). He is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association and an Academician and Selector of the International Academy (IAASM).

PhD MA MB BS DAvMed MRAeS FAsMA

Des has worked as a specialist in aviation medicine and Principal Investigator in the Aircrew Systems/Human Performance teams at QinetiQ since 2001. Together with 16 years as a Royal Air Force medical officer, he has over 36 years’ experience in the field of aerospace medicine. He provides support to a wide range of human research activities at QinetiQ, with particular interest in altitude and acceleration protection.

He has supervised over 1000 human altitude chamber exposures, including about 500 rapid decompressions, and over 10,000 human exposures to sustained high +Gz acceleration on man-carrying centrifuges. He spent 10 years investigating visual effects of hypoxia (oxygen deficiency) in dim light, completing a vision research PhD on this topic at City University London. Some of this work was recognised internationally with the 2010 Tuttle Award of the Aerospace Medical Association for original research making “the most significant contribution toward the solution of a challenging problem in aerospace medicine”.

More recently he has worked on the association between brain white matter changes and altitude exposure and is the UK technical representative on the NATO working group collaborating on this topic. He is also conducting research into biomarker responses to decompression stress. He was appointed on merit to QinetiQ Fellow (senior scientist) in 2014 and to Senior Fellow in 2019.

He has contributed to leading UK and US textbooks of aerospace medicine, on the topics of hypoxia, hyperventilation and decompression and is an examiner and lecturer for the Diploma in Aviation Medicine Course at King’s College London. He has been a member of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine since 2016 and a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association.

M.B;B.S., M.D. (Aerospace Medicine)

Currently senior medical officer at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Australia. Earlier served in the Indian Air Force and at the Singapore Aeromedical Centre. A recent convert to peer support and nascent practitioner of salutogenic approach to health and well-being. Interests in aeromedical decision making and aerospace physiology and human factors training.

A Fellow of the Australasian College of Aerospace Medicine (ACAsM), the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) and the Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine (ISAM); an academician of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine (IAASM); and, a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), the Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine (ASAM) and the Australasian Medical Review Officers Association (AMROA).