Honorary Fellow
Curt Graeber retired from Boeing at the end of 2008 as a Senior Technical Fellow, Chief Engineer for Human Factors and Director of Regional Safety Programs. While at Boeing he also served as Chief, Crew Operations, for the development of the 737-600/700/800 airplane series. He rejoined Boeing in 2021 as a Senior Engineering Human Factors consultant. From 2009-2016, he was President of The Graeber Group, Ltd., an independent consultancy specializing in human performance and aviation safety.
Previously Dr. Graeber conducted research on circadian rhythms and fatigue at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and led the flight crew fatigue program at NASA’s Ames Research Center. His seminal research in the 1980s on crew fatigue has formed the basis for much of the recent progress in addressing fatigue risk in aviation. Curt has received numerous awards from various international aerospace organizations, including the Honourable Company of Air Pilots’ (formerly GAPAN) Cumberbatch Trophy for the Promotion of Flight Safety. He has authored over 100 scientific and technical articles and was a Visiting Professor, Human Factors, at Cranfield University's College of Aeronautics in the UK, 2001-2008. Curt is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Aerospace Medical Association, and the Flight Safety Foundation. In 1986 he served as the Human Factors Specialist for the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident.
Dr. Graeber has served on numerous international and government committees and has advised various airlines and airline groups. He organized and co-chaired the Flight Safety Foundation’s Ultra Long-Range Crew Alertness Initiative and led ICAO’s Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS) Task Force. He was a founding member of Air New Zealand’s Independent Alertness Advisory Panel and served as an FRMS advisor to Southwest Airlines working with Clockwork Research. He continues to serve as an FRMS advisor to Air France and chaired their Independent Safety Review Team (2009-10) after the AF447 accident.
Dr. Graeber continues to collaborate with researchers at the Sleep/Wake Research Centre, and in 2022 contributed to an invited book chapter in Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine on fatigue risk management systems.