Karl Chatelain

Biography

Karl Chatelain is a Research Scientist in the FASTER group at KAUST. His research focuses on detonation physics, hydrogen combustion, laser diagnostics, and spectroscopy. He develops optical measurement methods and combines experiments with numerical studies of reacting flows.

He earned his Ph.D. from Université Paris-Saclay and ENSTA ParisTech in 2016 and his habilitation from Institut Polytechnique de Paris in 2026. He joined KAUST in 2017, working first as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a Research Scientist in Professor Deanna Lacoste’s group before joining FASTER in 2026.

Research projects

• CRG 2024 "Accelerating Green Propellant Usage in Aerospace Propulsion"
• CRG2025 "High-Dimensional Laser Absorption Diagnostics for Insights into Rotating Detonation Combustors"

Education

2026 – HDR: Accreditation to supervise research – Institut Polytechnique de Paris (France) // 2016 – Ph.D. Chemical Engineering – ENSTA ParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay (France) // 2013 – M.Sc. Energy and Materials – Université d’Orléans (France). Major: Energy, Combustion, Environment