Prof Richard van Zyl-Smit MBChB, FRCP(UK), Dip HIV(Man), MMED, FCP(SA), Cert Pulm(SA), PhD, ATSF. Professor Richard van Zyl-Smit is a Professor of Pulmonology and consultant pulmonologist, in the Division of Pulmonology, Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town South Africa. He is a principal researcher at the UCT lung Institute. Currently he serves as the president of the South African Thoracic Society, and co-Chair of the American Thoracic Society International Health Committee. After qualifying as a pulmonologist in 2007, he completed his PhD investigating the effects of tobacco smoke and nicotine on human pulmonary defence mechanisms to tuberculosis infection. He was supported by an NIH Fogarty fellowship and additionally completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at UMDNJ. His major research interests are airways diseases specifically; asthma and COPD with a focus on tobacco, household air pollution, electronic cigarettes and their impact on pulmonary immune responses (to pneumococcal and mycobacterial infection) and the development of COPD, particularly in low-income settings. After a 5-year period as Head of the Lung Clinical Research Unit at the UCT Lung Institute, he took up a full-time appointment at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, being promoted to full Professor in 2020. He has over 100 peer review publications spanning smoking cessation, vaping, tobacco smoking and infections, TB and critical care to asthma and COPD. Many of these papers are self-initiated research projects in addition to clinical trial related primary or follow up publications. He furthermore has authored two books on mental health and sustainability in academia and medicine. As a clinical trial investigator, he has completed over 130 trials over the past 16 years. He been PI on many of these trials and frequently acts as the national coordinating Principal Investigator. He recently was the international coordinating principal investigator for the Novartis Platinum programme Palladium study. The spectrum of trials includes asthma and COPD, TB vaccines, TB drug development, smoking cessation, cystic fibrosis, chronic cough and pulmonary fibrosis. He has also served as a member for Drug Safety Monitoring Boards. He is a frequent speaker at both local and international meetings and educational events. He is a Global GINA ambassador and serves as the South African representative on the GOLD committee.