Athena Coustenis is Director of Research with the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) of France, based at Paris Observatory in Meudon. She is an astrophysicist with a specialty in space exploration and planetary sciences. Her research is devoted to the investigation of planetary atmospheres and surfaces, their origins and evolution, with emphasis on the habitable conditions in the Solar System and exoplanets. She is involved in the definition, development and exploitation of space missions to solar system bodies with high astrobiological potential, in particular Mars, icy moons like Titan and Enceladus, Saturn’s satellites, and Jupiter’s Ganymede and Europa, and exoplanets. She is currently co-investigator of the ESA JUICE and ARIEL missions to the Jupiter system and to study the exoplanets, and of JAXA’s MMX mission to Mars’ satellite Phobos.  

Beyond her scientific work, A. Coustenis is currently involved or has in the past participated or led several advisory groups within ESA and NASA and other international bodies, helping establish space programs and optimize their scientific return. She is currently Chair of the COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection and a member of the Space Programme Committee of CNES. She is also the Past Chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, and the President of the IAU Division F.