Dr. Nacer Chahat
NASA Jet Prolusion Laboratory / Caltech
Pasadena, California, USA
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Nacer E. Chahat (SM'15 - F'21) received the Master's degree in electrical engineering from the École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Rennes (ESIR), Rennes, France, in 2009, and the Master's degree in telecommunications and the Ph.D. degree in signal processing and telecommunications from the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Rennes (IETR), University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France, in 2009 and 2012, respectively.

He is a Senior Antenna/Microwave Engineer and System Engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. Since 2013, he has been a Microwave/Antenna Engineer with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Since 2017, he has also served as Technical Section Staff and Product Delivery Manager. Dr. Chahat has authored and coauthored more than 200 technical journal articles and conference papers, written four book chapters, and holds several patents. He is the author of the Wiley-published book, CubeSat Antenna Design.

He was the recipient of the 2011 CST University Publication Award, the 2011 Best Paper Award from the Bioelectromagnetics Society, and the 2012 IEEE Antenna and Propagation Society Doctoral Research Award. He was also recognized by the Foundation of Rennes 1 as the Best Ph.D. graduate from the University of Rennes. In 2013, he received the Best Ph.D. Thesis in France in Electrical Engineering awarded by Club EEA (Enseignants et Chercheurs en Électronique, Électrotechnique et Automatique). That same year, he was honored with the Airbus Group Foundation's Best Thesis Prize in France. In 2015, Dr. Chahat received the French Early Career Award for Engineers and Scientists (Prix Bretagne Jeune Chercheur) for his significant scientific contributions early in his career. He was also the recipient of the 2017 IEEE A. Schelkunoff Transactions Prize Paper Award and the prestigious Lew Allen Award for Excellence from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory "for demonstrated unique talent as a leader in rapid spacecraft antenna development and telecom systems engineering." In 2018, Dr. Chahat was awarded the Future Technology Leader Award by the Engineers' Council and NASA's Early Career Achievement Award. In 2019, he received the JARS Best Paper Award for Photo-Optical Instrumentation and Design. In 2020, he was named Region 6 Outstanding Engineer of the Year and received the 2020 AIAA Spacecraft Structures Best Paper Award. In 2021, he received the IETE Dr. Sudhakar Rao Award and became the youngest IEEE Fellow. He won the WAMS Best Paper Award in both 2022 and 2023. In 2023, he was named Personality of the Year in Rennes by the French newspaper Ouest-France, and was elected Life Fellow by the WAMS Society. He was also inducted as an AIAA Associate Fellow in 2023 and an IET Fellow in 2024. In 2024, he was awarded NASA's Exceptional Public Achievement Medal for his role in the SWOT mission.

Dr. Chahat served as Chair of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Coastal Los Angeles Section Chapter from 2022 to 2023. He is currently the Chair of the AIAA San Gabriel Valley Chapter.

Titles of talks:

• Pushing the limits of space exploration one antenna at a time
• Engineering cubesat success: deployable antennas for Earth and Deep Space applications
• All metal antenna for space exploration in harsh environment
• Exploring new frontiers: the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity's ground breaking journey