Dr. Yalin is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University. He joined in 2002.
Dr. Yalin received his undergraduate degree in engineering physics from Queen’s University in 1995, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University in 1997 and 2000 respectively, and held a post-doctoral position at Stanford University from 2000-2002.
At CSU, he serves as the director of the Center for Laser Sensing and Diagnostics which includes approximately 10 students researchers. He is also the director of the CSU NASA Space Grant program.
Victorien joined CLSD in the fall of 2023 as a postdoctoral fellow after completing his Ph.D. from CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay. During his Ph.D., he worked at the EM2C laboratory on the stabilization of lean flames with nanosecond discharges to reduce NOX emissions. His current research is focused on using spectroscopic diagnostics to characterize laser-induced plasmas produced by dual femtosecond/nanosecond laser pulses, Thomson scattering, and CARS.
Ryan joined CLSD in the spring of 2025 after completing his PhD at Iowa State University in 2024 in mechanical engineering with a focus on droplet-wall impact phenomena and fuel vaporization to inform numerical simulations. His current research focus at CLSD is on using CARS/PARS laser diagnostic techniques to sense trace amounts of hydrogen gas for industrial emissions detection applications.
Matteo joined CLSD in the spring of 2025 after working on his doctoral research at the University of Siena, in collaboration with Aerospazio Tecnologie. His work focused on applying laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) to study neutral and ion species in Hall thrusters, aiming to investigate acceleration dynamics and plasma behavior. At CLSD, he is now using LIF to examine molecular nitrogen plasmas, aiming to better understand thruster-relevant molecular plasmas and sources.
Parneeth joined CLSD as a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK). During his master’s he worked at the Combustion and Flame Dynamics Lab at IITK to study and investigate the exhaust emissions from a gas turbine engine. Currently, Parneeth is working on developing a Filtered Rayleigh Scattering diagnostic to study laser-plasma ignition.
Brian joined CLSD in the fall of 2023 as part of his undergraduate research practicum. He is working on the experimental setup of an ammonia plasma reformer utilizing cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) to measure the NH₂ fuel radical.
Evan joined CLSD in the spring of 2023, while completing his B.S. in mechanical engineering at CSU. He works on the laser sensing of ozone and benzene emissions and is continuing his work on high voltage laser triggered switches as a master’s student.
Jon joined CLSD in the fall of 2023 as part of his Undergraduate Research Practicum. He is working an experimental setup using two-photon laser induced fluorescence (TALIF) to measure neutral particle densities in cathodes and Hall Thrusters, including temporally resolved measurements.
Mitchell joined the group in the summer of 2024 via the NASA Space Grant and is beginning his Undergraduate Research Practicum student in the fall of 2024. He will focus on laser measurements (TALIF of neutral atoms) for propulsion applications.
Neylson joined the CLSD in the fall of 2023. He is assisting with the high voltage laser triggered switch project sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories. He plans to continue as an Undergraduate Research Practicum student in the fall of 2024.
Michael is a Physics major at CSU who is contributing to CLSD on various projects. He is currently focused on getting a CO2 Laser demonstration up and running.
Research Scientists and Post-Doctoral Researchers
Ph.D.
M.S.
