Jean-Lou Chameau earned his Ph.D. at Stanford – his advisor was future Georgia Tech President G. Wayne Clough. In 1991, while at Purdue, Chameau was selected as chair of Georgia Tech's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He would leave Tech in 1994 to run a consulting firm before coming back in a few years later as vice provost for research and dean of graduate studies. 

In 1997, Chameau became dean and served in that role for four years until Clough named him provost and vice president for academic affairs. 

Chameau was named president of Caltech in 2006, then was appointed the president of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia in 2013.