Helmut Konrad Ciezki studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University (RWTH) of Aachen in Germany, where he also received his PhD degree with a thesis on "Self-Ignition Characteristics of n-Heptane/Air-Mixtures". In 1991 he started to work at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Lampoldshausen. Currently he is the head of the Propellants Department within the Institute of Space Propulsion at the DLR test site Lampoldshausen. He has published more than 150 papers on liquid, gelled, hybrid and solid propulsion, ramjet and scramjet propulsion, self-ignition processes and material testing. Additionally, he is lecturer at the University of Stuttgart and the University of Cooperative Education at Mosbach. He is associate editor of the Int. Journal of Energetic Materials and Chemical Propulsion and member of the editorial advisory board of Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics (PEP).