Profile of Françoise Combes

Françoise Combes’s childhood curiosity motivated her to pursue a career in science. Her studies in physics at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris eventually led her to focus on astrophysics. With help from mentors, such as astrophysicists Evry Schatzman and Pierre Encrenaz, Combes has had a distinguished career in astrophysics. She is renowned for her work studying the formation and evolution of galaxies and their dynamics and her research on dark matter. In her Inaugural Article, she describes her latest work exploring alternatives to dark matter.