Professor Zouhair Benkhaldoun graduated (PHD) in astrophysics from the university of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France and Cadi Ayyad university of Marrakech. He is also graduated (PHD) in Energetics from University of Provence in Marseille France.
In 1985 he founded along with three other researchers the first Astrophysics laboratory in Morocco. He joined the University of Marrakech in 1992 and founded the Laboratory of High Energy Physics and Astrophysics (LPHEA) in 1999. He also works on the creation of the first professional Astronomical Observatory at Oukaimeden inaugurated in 2007 and directs it since then. He founds in 1999 the "Association d'Astronomie Amateur de Marrakech '' (3AM), a cultural association aiming to promote science of the universe towards the large public audience (Scholars in particular). These works on site testing allow Morocco to be selected for the site study campaign for the European Extremely Large Telescope (EELT).
He has authored or co-authored more than 260 publications in the Astronomy and astrophysics field. He was elected (may 2013) as president of the Moroccan National Committee of Astronomy. He is also Arab Astronomical Society president and Atlas Dark Sky president. He is carrying out an ambitious project to build a 2 meters telescope in Morocco.
