Dr. Trevor Lafleur is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Technology at UNSW Canberra, University of New South Wales. A physicist and engineer with over 14 years of experience in plasma physics and space propulsion, he holds B.Sc. degrees in Aeronautical Engineering and in Experimental and Theoretical Physics from the University of the Witwatersrand, as well as a Ph.D. in Physics from The Australian National University. His career includes research positions at Ecole Polytechnique in France, ONERA – The French Aerospace Lab, and the French National Space Agency (CNES). Lafleur founded PlasmaPotential, a consulting business for the semiconductor and space industries, and served as Principal Engineer and Program Manager at ThrustMe, contributing to the design and in-orbit demonstration of the world’s first iodine-fuelled electric propulsion system in space.

Lafleur has advanced the understanding of radio-frequency plasmas and plasma instabilities, pioneering voltage waveform tailoring for capacitively coupled plasmas, and developed five new plasma propulsion concepts. He has authored 107 journal articles, 15 conference papers, 75 conference presentations, 1 thesis/dissertation, 9 preprints, and 2 other publications. His work has garnered over 5,600 citations with an h-index of 42 (Google Scholar). Current research interests encompass space propulsion, alternative propellants, ionospheric plasma-satellite aerodynamics, high-enthalpy plasma-gas flows for ground- and space-based applications, fundamental low-temperature plasma physics, and verification and validation of plasma simulation models. Key recent publications include 'Hall thruster modeling with multiple simulation techniques: Model benchmarking, fluid–kinetic consistency, and experimental validation' (Journal of Applied Physics, 2026), 'Global modeling and performance analysis of a water-fueled radio-frequency gridded ion thruster' (Journal of Applied Physics, 2026), and 'Iodine plasmas for space propulsion and industrial applications' (Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2026). He serves as Associate Editor for Plasma Sources Science and Technology.

Professional Email: t.lafleur@adfa.edu.au