A list of previous keynote speakers is given below. The decision has been made in 2008 that keynote speakers that has already presented a keynote paper at HEFAT may not be considered again as keynote speakers for the following three HEFAT conferences. The previous keynote speakers were:
| Name | Affiliation |
| HEFAT2002 | 1st International Conference: Kruger National Park, South Africa |
| Adrian Bejan | Duke University, USA |
| Beric Skews | University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa |
| Satish G Kandlikar | Rochester Institute of Technology, USA |
| Antony Jacobi | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Jungho Kim | University of Maryland, USA |
| Liqiu Wang | University of Hong Kong |
| AAM Delil | National Aerospace Laboratory NLR, Netherlands |
| Detliv Kroger | University of Stellenbosch, South Africa |
| HEFAT2003 | 2nd International Conference: Victoria Falls, South Africa |
| Kyoji Kamemoto | Yokohama National Universirt, Japan |
| Dimos Poulikakos | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland |
| KN Seetharamu | USM Engineering, Malaysia |
| Pega Hrnjak | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| HEFAT2004 | 3rd International Conference: Cape Town, South Africa |
| John R Thome | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Afshin Ghajar | Oklahoma State University |
| H Hayami | Kyushu University, Japan |
| Leon Liebenberg | University of Pretoria, South Africa |
| HEFAT2005 | 4th International Conference: Cairo, Egypt |
| VK Dhir | University of California, USA |
| Holger Martin | Karlsruhe University, Germany |
| G Hetsroni | Israel Institute of Technology, Israel |
| Y Tsujimoto | Osaka University, Japan |
| P Nithiarasu | University of Wales, Swansea, United Kingdom |
| AAM Delil | Advanced Aerospace Thermal Control Systems |
| HEFAT2007 | 5th International Conference: Sun City, South Africa |
| Yas Takata | Kyushu University, Japan |
| Peter Vadasz | Northern Arizona University, USA |
| AS Majumdar | National University of Singapore |
| AT Prata | Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil |
| IG Shekriladze | Georgian Technical University, Georgia |
| Wen-Quan Tao | Xi'an Jiaotong University, China |
| Bartoli Carlo | University of Pisa, Italy |
| John R Thome | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland |
| HEFAT2008 | 6th International Conference: University of Pretoria, South Africa |
| Adrian Bejan and Sylvie Lorente | Duke University, USA |
| Adrian Briggs | University of London, United Kingdom |
| VV Kulish | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
| K Sefiane | University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom |
| Peter Stehlik | Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic |
| HEFAT2010 | 7th International Conference: Antalya, Turkey |
| Zahid Ayub | Isotherm, Inc., USA |
| Afshin Ghajar | Oklahoma State University, USA |
| Thomas McKrell | MIT, USA |
| Pradeep Bansal | University of Auckland, New Zeeland |
| Ranganathan Kumar | University of Central Florida, USA |
| Charles Ward | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Oleg Kabov | Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium |
| HEFAT2011 | 8th International Conference: Mauritius |
| Dongsheng Wen | Queen Mary University of London, UK |
| John Thome | EPFL, Switzerland |
| Qiuwang Wang | Xi'an Jiaotong University, China |
| Michel de Paepe | Ghent University, Belgium |
| Gordon Mallinson | The University of Auckland |
| Pega Hrnjak | University of Illinois, USA |
| Md. Mahbub Alam | University of Pretoria, South Africa |
| HEFAT2012 | 9th International Conference: Malta |
| Avi Bar-Cohen | University of Maryland, USA |
| Brian Spalding | CHAM, UK |
| Tilak Chandratilleke | Curtin University, Australia |
| John Chai, UAE | Petroleum Institute, UAE |
| Tunde Bello-Ochende | University of Pretoria, South Africa |
| Remi Revellin | National Institute of Applied Sciences of Lyon, France |
| HEFAT2014 | 10th International Conference: Orlando |
| Cees van der Geld | Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands |
| Huihe Qiu | Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong |
| Zhixiong Guo | Rutgers University, USA |
| Christos Markides | Imperial College, UK |
| Ana Moita | Lisbon University, Portugal |
| Sebastian Volz | CNRS, France |
| Rick de Lange | Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands |
| Mikhail Liberman | KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden |
| Bale Reddy | University of Ontario, Canada |
| Martin Oberlack | Technical University Darmstadt, Germany |
| Dean Vucinic | Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium |
| HEFAT2015 | 11th International Conference: Kruger National Park, South Africa |
| Pega Hrnjak | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Alexander Yarin | University of Illinois at Chicago, USA |
| Sadik Kakac | TOBB University Economics and Technology, Turkey |
| Stephane Lips | INSA Lyon, France |
| Davide del Col | University of Padova, ITaly |
| Patrick Oosthuizen | Queen's University, Canada |
| HEFAT2016 | 12th International Conference: Costa del Sol, Spain |
| Xianfan Xu | Purdue University, USA |
| Koji Takahashi | Kyushu University, Japan |
| Andrea Cioncolini | University of Manchester, UK |
| Luisa F Cabeza | University of Lleida, Spain |
| Ozer Arnas | Military Academy of West Point, USA |
| HEFAT2017 | 13th International Conference: Portorož, Slovenia |
| Matjaž Hriberšek | University of Marlbor, USA |
| Igor Piori | University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada |
| Yulong Ding | University of Birmingham, UK |
| Mohammed Farid | University of Auckland, New Zealand |
| Shoji Mori | Yokohama National University, Japan |
| Catherine Colin | INSA Lyon, France |
| Matteo Bucci | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA |
| HEFAT2019 | 14th International Conference: Wicklow, Ireland |
| Pamela Norris | University of Virginia, United States |
| Kim Choon Ng | King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia |
| Prashant Valluri | School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom |
| Masayasu Shimura | Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan |
| Fei Duan | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
| Marcelo De Lemos | Instituto Tecnlogico de Aeronautica - ITA, Brazil |
