Dr. Peter Schmid is a professor of mechanical engineering and leading scholar in the field of fluid dynamics, with research interests spanning disciplines from within the Physical Science and Engineering as well as Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Divisions at KAUST. Prior to joining the university in 2021, he held positions at the University of Washington, French National Research Agency (CNRS), Ecole Polytechnique, and Imperial College London. He received his engineer’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Technical University of Munich and a doctoral degree in mathematics from MIT. Professor Schmid ranks among the top mechanical and aerospace engineering scientists in his field, with research contributions in top-tier journals such as the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Physical Review Fluids and Journal of Computational Physics. He is active professionally at conferences and workshops worldwide as a guest speaker and organizer and serves on the editorial boards of Physical Review Fluids and the IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics..​

​Professor Schmid's research interests are in theoretical and computational fluid dynamics,with emphasis on hydrodynamic stability theory, flow control, model reduction and systemidentification. He is also interested in computational techniques for flow optimization andquantitative flow analysis. His work involves creating and applying computational modelsand advanced algorithms to quantitatively describe and analyze fluid systems. His researchhas applications in aerodynamics, aero-acoustics, thermo-acoustics, binary mixing, generaldynamical systems, and geophysical and biological fluid dynamics. Optimal design,improved operating conditions, suppression of instabilities and noise contaminations, andenergy and process efficiency play a key role in his research activities.​