Nacer Chahat. Nacer E. Chahat is a French Algerian-American engineer and researcher at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Early life and education 
Chahat was born in Angers, France to a family of Algerian descent. He was educated at Palissy High School. He obtained his master's degrees in electrical engineering from Ecole Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Rennes (ESIR) and in telecommunication from the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Rennes (IETR), University of Rennes 1 in 2009. He completed his Ph.D. in signal processing and telecommunications at the IETR, University of Rennes 1, in 2012.

Career 
Chahat has been associated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), since 2013. Initially, he joined as a Microwave/Antenna Engineer and later took on the roles of Technical Section Staff and Product Delivery Manager in 2017. He became SWOT Payload System engineer in 2019.

At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Chahat has contributed to several projects, including the Mars Helicopter, Mars 2020, SWOT, Europa Clipper, Mars Cube One, RaInCube, and others.

On April 19, 2021, Chahat was part of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory team that successfully made Ingenuity, the first powered-controlled aircraft to fly on another planet.

In 2022, Chahat was named an IEEE Fellow, recognized for his contributions to spacecraft antennas and propagation, and became one of the youngest fellows of IEEE.

Research 
Chahat specializes in antenna design and electromagnetic interference and compatibility (EMI/EMC) analysis for space missions. He also works across a wide range of frequencies, from UHF to THz, applied in communications, RADAR, imaging systems, satellite communications antennas, wearable and flexible antennas, and antennas for remote sensing and radio astronomy.

Chahat's notable contributions to NASA missions include the design of the Raincube Ka-band deployable mesh reflector, the Mars Cube One X-band antennas, the Europa lander antenna, and communication tools for the Mars Helicopter mission.

Awards and recognition 
 2015: Prix Bretagne Jeune Chercheur
 2017: The IEEE Sergei A. Schelkunoff Award
 2017: The Lew Allen Award for Excellence
 2018: George Herzl Award
 2018: The Engineers' Council Future Technology Leader Award
 2019: JARS Best Paper Award for Photo-Optical Instrumentation and Design
 2021: IET Dr. Sudhalar Rao Award
 2022: IEEE Fellow
 2022: National Space Society (NSS) Award
 2022: IEEE Spectrum Emerging Technology Award
 2022: Robert J. Collier Trophy
 2022: National Air & Space Museum Collins Award
 2022: Rennais of the Year
 2023: AIAA Associate Fellow
 2025:  Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

Selected publications 
 Millimeter-wave interactions with the human body: State of knowledge and recent advances, M Zhadobov, N Chahat, R Sauleau, C Le Quement, Y Le Drean, International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies 3 (2), 237–247. 2011
 A compact UWB antenna for on-body applications, N Chahat, M Zhadobov, R Sauleau, K Ito, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation 59 (4), 1123–1131, 2011
 A Deployable High-Gain Antenna Bound for Mars: Developing a new folded-panel reflectarray for the first CubeSat mission to Mars., RE Hodges, N Chahat, DJ Hoppe, JD Vacchione, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine 59 (2), 39–49, 2017
 CubeSat deployable Ka-band mesh reflector antenna development for earth science missions, N Chahat, RE Hodges, J Sauder, M Thomson, E Peral, Y Rahmat-Samii, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation 64 (6), 2083–2093, 2016
 Antennas and propagation for body-centric wireless communications at millimeter-wave frequencies: A review [wireless corner], A Pellegrini, A Brizzi, L Zhang, K Ali, Y Hao, X Wu, CC Constantinou, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine 55 (4), 262–287, 2013
 Wearable endfire textile antenna for on-body communications at 60 GHz, N Chahat, M Zhadobov, L Le Coq, R Sauleau, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters 11, 799–802, 2012
 Characterization of the interactions between a 60-GHz antenna and the human body in an off-body scenario, N Chahat, M Zhadobov, L Le Coq, SI Alekseev, R Sauleau, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation 60 (12), 5958–5965, 2012
 60-GHz textile antenna array for body-centric communications, N Chahat, M Zhadobov, SA Muhammad, L Le Coq, R Sauleau, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation 61 (4), 1816–1824, 2012
 On-body propagation at 60 GHz, N Chahat, G Valerio, M Zhadobov, R Sauleau, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation 61 (4), 1876–1888, 2013
 Novel deployable reflectarray antennas for CubeSat communications, RE Hodges, DJ Hoppe, MJ Radway, NE Chahat, 2015 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, 1–4, 2015

Bibliography

Books 
 CubeSat Antenna Design (2021)

Book chapters 
 G. Chattopadhyay, M. Alonso Del Pino, N. Chahat, D. Gonzalez, and T. Reck, Terahertz antennas and feeds, Chapter 11 in “Aperture antennas for mm and sub-mm wave applications”, Springer, 2017.
 M. Zhadobov, C. Leduc, A. Guraliuc, N. Chahat, and R. Sauleau, “Body-centric wireless communication and networks,” Chapter 5 in Advances in Body-Centric Wireless Communication: Applications and State-of-the-art, , The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), 2016.
 N. Chahat, A. Tang, G. Valerio, M. Zhadobov, Anda Guraliuc, and R. Sauleau, Antennas, Phantoms, and Body-centric propagation at millimeter waves, in Electromagnetics of Body-Area Networks: Antennas, Propagation, and RF Circuits, , Wiley/IEEE Press, 2016.
 N. Chahat, M. Zhadobov, and R. Sauleau, Progress in compact antennas, Chapter 6: Antennas for body-centric wireless communications at millimeter wave frequencies, , Intech 2014.

References 

 Nacer Chahat – Ingénieur au Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA)., Association Odyssée Céleste article (in French), August 2023 - Nacer Chahat interview by Halim Bennadja.

French people of Algerian descent
Fellows of the IEEE
NASA people
People from Angers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)