Jean-Gabriel Cuby named CFHT Executive Director

The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Jean-Gabriel Cuby to the position of CFHT Executive Director effective July 2022. Cuby is currently an astronomer at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM, Aix-Marseille University - AMU), where he served as director from 2012 to 2017.

“I look forward to leading the exceptional CFHT staff during this pivotal time. My goals are to keep CFHT at the forefront of astronomical research while working towards the future with the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer,” said Cuby. “I look forward to becoming an active member of the community and learning more about my new home.”

Dr. Cuby’s long history with CFHT spans over twenty-five years. He joined the French Time Allocation Committee in 1995, serving as committee chair in 1998, and subsequently served on the CFHT Science Advisory Committee and CFHT Board of Directors. He currently serves as one of the French agency representatives on the MSE Management Group.

Dr. Cuby began his career working at the European Southern Observatory, rising to the head of the VLT-VLTI instrument program at Paranal Observatory in Chile. He stayed engaged in the ESO community upon moving to LAM, serving on various ESO committees and instrument teams. While at LAM, he played an active role in the European Extremely Large Telescope project and in the Euclid Space Mission, led the AMU participation to the development of the DESI spectrographs, and led the LAM-CNES contribution to the Grism-Prism Data Processing System for the Roman Space Telescope. After leaving the director position at LAM, Dr. Cuby served as the chargé de mission to the deputy director, head of the Astronomy & Astrophysics division of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). In that role, Dr. Cuby represented CNRS and ultimately coordinated a European Commission program bringing together many optical and radio astronomical observatories and institutes (Opticon-RadioNet Pilot).

“Jean-Gabriel’s long history with CFHT and exemplary qualifications make him an ideal choice as CFHT’s next Executive Director. I look forward to working with him in our respective roles to ensure a vibrant future for Hawai’i astronomy,” said Dr. Doug Simons, University of Hawai’i member agency representative on the CFHT Board of Directors. “I have great confidence in his leadership and his vision for CFHT and MSE moving forward.”

Media Contact

Mary Beth Laychak
Canada-France-Hawai'i Telescope
laychak@cfht.hawaii.edu