Jean Muylaert was director of the von Karman Institute from 1 November 2008 to December 2016.

Jean Muylaert received his masters degree in Electromechanical Engineering from the University of Leuven (Belgium) followed by the diploma degree from the von Karman Institute on transonic aerodynamics in the diploma course 1979-1980.

His industrial professional career started at DORNIER Germany where he was in charge of developing tools to improve missile aerothermodynamics as well as fighter aircraft design and optimisation methods.While at DORNIER he was seconded to the ETW (European Transonic Wind tunnel) team in Amsterdam and later to Cologne (Germany) where he was in charge of the design, commissioning and calibration of the ETW airline components as well as leading the developments on wind tunnel wall correction methods. In 1988, he joined the European Space Agency (ESA) where he has set up and led the Aerothermodynamics section providing support for all launchers and re-entry missions as well as promoting R&D activities in the field of CFD validation including w ind tunnel and flight instrumentation developments. More recently he embarked on a series of in flight research projects associated with critical aerothermodynamics and TPS design related issues.He is the chief scientist of the European Experimental Re-entry Test bed (EXPERT) flight project. He has edited 4 books, published more than 80 papers and is a lecturer at European universities on aerothermodynamics.