Retired Air Vice Marshal Tracy Lee Smart, AO is a Professor of Military and Aerospace Medicine and Public Health Lead of the COVID Response Office at the Australian National University. She is a physician, aerospace medicine specialist, health leader, and retired Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) senior officer. She was the third woman to reach the rank of air vice marshal in the RAAF. 

Professor Smart’s ANU roles include provision of public health guidance on COVID-19 and contributing to the development of its Space Medicine program as an InSpace Mission Specialist. She is also President of the Australasian College of Aerospace Medicine, a Fellow of the Aerospace Medicine Association (US), an Academician of the International Academy of Air and Space Medicine, and a member of the Australian Space Agency’s Technical Advisory Group on Space Medicine and Life Sciences.

During 35 years of service, Professor Smart served in tactical, operational and strategic roles, deployed on operations overseas, was twice Commanding Officer of the RAAF Institute of Aviation Medicine, and was Surgeon General of the ADF from 2015 to 2019. She transferred to the RAAF Reserve in 2020. She has many real life experiences of leadership and resilience in the field and with remote medicine, having deployed numerous times, including as part of the UN Mission to Rwanda.

Tracy developed a love of space when she was just five years old and she created a scrapbook of the Apollo 11 Mission, which captured her imagination. One of her favourite memories is meeting Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon.

She has authored 14 published articles, a book chapter and have presented and participated in over 400 papers, keynote presentations and panel appearances at conferences and scientific meetings in Australia and internationally. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honours List and an Officer of the Order of Australian in 2019.