Jiewei Zhou

Jiewei Zhou (JZ) is an Aeronautical Engineer with a Bachelor’s (2014) and Master’s (2016) from UPM, completing his final year at KTH Sweden. He earned his PhD at UC3M’s Space Propulsion and Plasmas Team (EP2) in 2021, funded by an FPU grant. His research on plasma discharge modeling in electrodeless thrusters contributed to the 2D hybrid code HYPHEN and pioneering studies on the helicon and electron cyclotron thrusters, supported by projects from Airbus DS, SENER, and H2020 programs. He also collaborated on the 1D kinetic code VLASMAN to study electron thermodynamics in magnetic nozzles.

As a postdoc (2021–2024), JZ expanded into Hall thrusters, contributing to three H2020 projects (ASPIRE, CHEOPS-LP, CHEOPS-MP) and leading the development of EP2PLUS 2.0 for plasma plume modeling. He secured a Margarita Salas fellowship for a year at CNR-Italy, collaborating on plasma chemistry modeling for air-breathing electric propulsion, and contributing to the SUPERLEO project.

Currently, JZ is Assistant Professor at UC3M, with ANECA accreditation for Profesor Contratado Doctor (Associate Professor level). He co-supervises two PhD theses on Hall and RF ion thrusters and explores machine learning applications in plasma modeling. In teaching, he coordinates three master’s courses (Advanced Flight Mechanics, Orbital Dynamics, Launchers & Re-entry) and teaches Introduction to Space Vehicles & Dynamics (master) and Modeling in Aerospace Engineering (undergrad).