After 17 years 
of postgraduate training, 4 continents, 11 countries Dr Knight brings the world to Sydney along with his other passion – his wife and 2 daughters.
Dr Knight performs a wide range of surgical procedures at Pure Aesthetics, including Breast Enlargement, breast reduction, face and neck lifts, brow lift surgery, rhinoplasty, liposuction, labiaplasty, and much more. He has undergone extensive training in plastic and reconstructive surgery, allowing him to provide patients with highly advanced care.
“I have always believed that if you love what you do for a living, you need not work a day in your life. I am fortunate enough to have found my passion early on in life by identifying that surgery was my calling. Despite initially focusing on cardiothoracic and transplant surgery, I soon came to realise that only plastic and reconstructive surgery embodied the principles of function, aesthetic form and holistic care using techniques and artistic license rather than prescribed set operations.“
–Dr Rob Knight
Training and Education
Dr Knight was fortunate enough to attend medical school in South Africa, and trained at the internationally renowned Baragwanath Hospital which is currently the biggest hospital in the world. His early exposure to extreme trauma, massive surgical workloads and inspiring surgeons consolidated his drive to be a surgeon. Dr Knight was awarded a Cyanamid Pharmaceutical Scholarship, the Medical Students Council Award and the Graham Wilkinson Medal at graduation. He worked extensively with the Sisters of Mercy in Parktown, Johannesburg caring for HIV/Aids patients and was a passionate advocate for abandoned AIDS orphans during the height of the epidemic.
Having completed his degree, Dr Knight went to the United Kingdom and worked in one of the largest transplant centres in Europe. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and travelled to other centres within the UK, Sweden, France, Ireland and Germany. He was awarded the LGI cardiothoracic prize in his third year of basic surgical training, presented at several conferences in London, Stockholm and Cologne. Dr Knight’s research on liver transplant surgery was also presented in Kyoto in Japan.
It was during this time that Dr Knight was exposed to plastic and reconstructive surgery. He consequently travelled to the home of free flap surgery in Australia and studied translational stem cell theory with a view to improving transplants in children and increasing blood supply throughout the human body. Dr Knight published research related to umbilical cord blood stem cells and their modification using N-Ras transfection, Glycogen-3beta-synthase and antibody manipulation. He presented his research in Miami, USA and was awarded the Miami Nature Biotech Research award for his work. Dr Knight was an associate conjoint lecturer at the University of New South Wales where he was awarded several prestigious awards including the SEALS postgraduate research scholarship for three years.
Dr Knight then commenced formal training in Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery in Western Australia. During his training he published research related to the microanatomical anatomy of the human abdomen and was awarded the Stryker Research Prize which saw him travel to Chicago. He also published works related to burns while under the directorship of Professor Fiona Wood and was also involved with charity work related to cleft lip, palate and facial anomalies in the Philippines and Africa with both Operation Rainbow Smile and independent specialists.
He was awarded his Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons which is the only government-recognised training programme for Specialist Plastic Surgeons in Australia. The overseeing society sanctioned by the government is the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons of which Dr Knight is a member and is listed in their exclusive directory.
After he completed his training as Specialist Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic surgeon, he undertook advanced training in Craniomaxillofacial Surgery which is overseen by the Australian and New Zealand Craniomaxillofacial Society. He spent a year in Brisbane at Australia’s largest Craniomaxillofacial unit where he worked at both the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital and the Mater Hospital. He was a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Queensland and was involved in teaching medical students and training junior plastic surgeons. Dr Knight was awarded the Australian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons Scholarship to pursue advanced training in Cosmetic and Aesthetic Surgery. He presented papers in Los Angeles and Miami and was a co-author of the international alert on breast implant related anaplastic large cell lymphoma paper and has written extensively and published papers about body contouring. Dr Knight also travelled to Italy to learn from world experts in rhinoplasty and facelift surgery at the prestigious Bergamo Rhinoplasty course, attended the Mentor Masterclass course of Breast Enlargement in Sydney and the internationally renowned FACE workshop in Melbourne.
Current and Previous Appointments
Dr Knight was invited to work at Seattle Children’s Hospital with the current world experts in Craniomaxillofacial Surgery dealing with congenital anomalies and acquired anomalies of the skull, face, eyes, ears, nose, jaws and neck. He also operated at the Harborview Medical Centre in Seattle, Washington which is one of the largest trauma centres in the USA. During his time in the USA, Dr Knight presented in Los Angeles at the largest plastic surgery conference in the country and continued his training in Seattle, Phoenix Barrow Institute, Raleigh/North Carolina, Tampa, Hawaii, San Francisco, Chicago and Yale University. He trained with international experts in face, nose, ear and jaw reconstruction as well as world famous breast, lower limb and hand reconstruction.
While working in Seattle he learned from colleagues from Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Duke, Toronto and New York. He was awarded the DePuy Travelling Fellowship and the Stryker Advanced Technique Travelling Fellowship during his time in the USA as well as the Covidien award. He has published work on complex transverse facial cleft deformities, subcranial rotation advancement of the face and cleft lip rhinoplasty anomalies in international peer reviewed journals.
Having now spent the best part of 13 years focussing on plastic, reconstructive and cosmetic surgery and learning from some of the best surgeons in the world, Dr Knight returns home to settle and to bring the world to Sydney. His pursuit to acquire this knowledge and skill set has led Dr Knight to live and work on 4 continents and study in 11 countries with additional advanced fellowships in craniomaxillofacial and aesthetic/cosmetic surgery from some of the best institutes internationally.
Dr Knight’s practice amalgamates all this experience and knowledge into one service designed to focus on the needs of my clients, listening and working with them to define a vision of what they want to achieve and then apply techniques from around the world to bring state of the art results.
Qualifications
- Specialist Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic/Cosmetic Surgeon (FRACS)
- Specialist Craniomaxillofacial and Paediatric Plastic Surgeon (FRACS)
- Aesthetic Surgeon – American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, Australian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons and the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons
- Doctorate in Medicine
- Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery
Professional Associations
- Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency – AHPRA
- Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
- Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons
- Australian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons
- American Society of Maxillofacial Surgeons
- American Society of Craniofacial Surgeons
- Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
- American College of Surgeons
- International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons
- International Society of Plastic and Regenerative Surgery
