Dr. Franck Marchis is a senior astronomer and director of citizen science at the SETI Institute and Chief Science Officer and co-founder at Unistellar. 

Marchis moved to the United States in Oct. 2000 shortly after getting a Ph.D. from the University of Toulouse in France that he acquired while traveling around the world for his research and for the sake of exploration. He is known for astronomical research published in Nature, Science, and other high-ranking journals, including discovery of the first triple-asteroid system in 2005, study of the binary trojan asteroid Patroclus in 2006, direct imaging of the first Jupiter-like exoplanet in 2015, and significant achievements related to the use of 8-10m class ground-based telescopes equipped with adaptive optics (AO). Marchis is also involved in startups focused on science outreach and astronomy, and joined Unistellar as a Chief Scientific Officer and VR2Planets as a scientific advisor in 2017. In 2022, he founded Dope Space, a company dedicated to outreach, entertainment, and education for the New Space industry.

 Marchis is a member of numerous science committees, including the GPI steering Committee, the TMT Science Definition Team, the Frontiers editorial board, the Project Blue Advisory board, and, since Oct. 2019, has been a member of the IAA SETI Permanent Committee. He has co-authored more than 400 scientific publications, trained numerous students, and served as a science consultant and interviewee for documentaries and movies in English, French, and Spanish. The asteroid (6639) was named Marchis in honor of his discovery in 2007 of the first triple-asteroid system. In recognition for his work in outreach and the search for life in the Universe, he became in 2023 a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and got the Carl Sagan Center Director award in 2024.