Francis Rocard
Born in Paris on May 23, 1957, Francis Rocard is an astrophysicist specializing in planetology. He began his career as a planetary scientist at the CNRS, and took part in the VEGA mission to fly over Halley's comet in 1986 and the PHOBOS-88 mission to study the mineralogy of the surface of Mars. In 1989, he joined the Centre national d'études spatiales, where he was in charge of the Solar System Exploration Programs. In this capacity, he oversaw the realization of the following missions:
- MARS-96 Mars exploration mission with Russia;
- CASSINI-HUYGENS to study the Saturn system and its satellite Titan, in cooperation with the European Space Agency and NASA;
- ROSETTA, a comet study mission with ESA;
- BEPICOLOMBO, a mission to study Mercury with ESA.
He also coordinates the Mars exploration program through the MARS EXPRESS, MSL-Curiosity, INSIGHT and EXOMARS missions.
He is also dedicated to disseminating scientific information to the general public (books, publications, ~ 200 conferences for the general public) and the media (~ 700 interviews).
Awards: Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite, Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.
