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About

Z. Benkhaldoun is a leading figure in exoplanet discovery and atmospheric aerosol research, bridging cutting-edge astronomy with Earth science. He is a key architect of the SPECULOOS project, a network of robotic telescopes designed to hunt for terrestrial planets around the nearest ultracool dwarf stars—a revolutionary approach that targets the most promising systems for atmospheric characterization. The foundational 2018 paper on SPECULOOS has garnered 76 citations, underscoring its impact on the search for habitable worlds. Benkhaldoun also played a pivotal role in establishing the TRAPPIST-North telescope at Oukaimeden Observatory in Morocco, demonstrating its high-precision photometric capabilities for exoplanet transit studies. Beyond exoplanets, his work on aerosol distributions and Saharan dust transport over southern Morocco, using ground-based AERONET data and satellite observations, has provided critical insights for climate modeling and the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) site characterization. His research, spanning from robotic telescopes to aerosol optics, reflects a unique interdisciplinary approach, with a growing citation record that highlights his contributions to both astrophysics and environmental science.