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Zouhair Benkhaldoun, graduated (PHD) in astrophysics from the Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France (1994). He also has a doctorate in Energetics from the University of Provence in Marseille France (1985).

In 1985, he participated with three other researchers in the foundation of the first laboratory of Astrophysics in Morocco within the CNRST. He then joined the Semlalia Faculty of Sciences at Cadi Ayyad University in 1992 and founded, with other researchers, the High Energy Physics and Astrophysics Laboratory (LPHEA) in 1999. He also worked with his colleagues to create the first professional Astronomical Observatory in Morocco at Oukaimeden, inaugurated in 2007 and has been leading it since then.

In 1999, he participated in the creation of the Amateur Astronomy Association of Marrakech (3AM), a cultural association domiciled at the FSSM, aimed at promoting the sciences of the universe to the general public (schoolchildren in particular). This scientific work in the theme of qualification of astronomical sites allows Morocco to be selected for the site testing campaign for the European Extremely Large Telescope (EELT).

He was elected (May 2013) president of the Moroccan National Committee for Astronomy acting with the International Astronomical Union. He has also been President of the Arab Astronomical Society since 2016 and President of the Atlas Dark Sky Foundation since 2019, a foundation that fights against light pollution and wants to promote the creation of a dark sky reserve around the Observatory of Oukaimeden.

Author or co-author of more than 260 articles and communications in the field of astronomy and astrophysics. He participated in the discovery of the “TRAPPIST-1” exoplanet system, a discovery published in the Nature journal.