Fatoumata Kébé

Fatoumata Kébé (Montreuil, 1985) is a French astronomer, astrophysicist, and educator who specialises in space pollution. She has worked at the Paris Observatory of the Pierre and Marie Curie University, where she studied, and has been a NASA, CNRS (France), and International Space University scholarship holder. She communicates her passion for science from the Éphémérides Association with workshops for young people and is involved in many projects concerned with protecting the environment in several African countries. She also works with the Femmes et Sciences and Women in Aerospace associations to further the role of women in space and repeatedly emphasises that her challenge is to ensure that there will be at least one woman on the next moon mission. In 2020 she published her first book L’altra cara de la lluna (Once Upon a Moon: History, Myths and Legends – Angle Editorial in Catalan, and Blackie Books in Spanish) in which she gives an account of the history of our satellite from the scientific standpoint, while also analysing the myths and legends that different civilisations have devoted to it. In 2018, she was listed by Vanity Fair as one of the year’s fifty most influential people.