Born in 1950, Daniel Rouan is an astrophysicist, Director of Research, Emeritus at the Observatoire de Paris (Laboratoire d'Etudes Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique - LESIA).

Former student from the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris), he defended his PhD thesis in 1981, then joined the CNRS in 1982 where he specialized in infrared astronomy.
His recent scientific experience was enhanced with discoveries of three dozens of extrasolar planets, such as the first earth-sized exoplanet shown to be a rocky one, or the direct detection of a Saturn-like exoplanet.

He has published 230 articles and books and supervised 23 PhD students. He has also undertaken important duties in the management of staff and scientific projects, in his laboratory as well as at national and international levels.

During his entire career, he was very much involved in tertiary education. After many years teaching astrophysics, and observation methods, he took the lead of the Master in Astrophysics, then of the doctoral school of Astrophysics in Ile-de-France that gathers all regional scientific universities in Paris area.

He was elected a member of the Académie des sciences in 2005 and became the President of the Fondation La main à la pâte in April 2014.