Kevin France is an astrophysicist and assistant professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences[1] at the
University of Colorado.[2] His research focuses on
exoplanets and their host stars,
protoplanetary disks, and the development of instrumentation for space-borne astronomy missions.
Following graduate school, France moved to a postdoctoral position at the
Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics before coming to the
University of Colorado's Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy to join the Instrument Development Team for
Hubble Space Telescope's
Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) with
James Green.[7][8][9] He was awarded NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman fellowship prior to joining the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS) faculty at Colorado in 2013.[10][1] France is presently an assistant professor in APS, the principal investigator of the Colorado Ultraviolet Rocket Group and the NASA-supported CUTE CubeSat mission, the UV spectrograph (LUMOS) lead for NASA’s LUVOIR Science and Technology Definition Team, and a founding member of the Colorado Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Program (CUSP).[11][12]
His work is aimed at exploring the potential for habitable planets to exist beyond the
Solar System. His specific expertise is the observation and modeling of
UV spectra of
planet-hosting stars,
exoplanetary atmospheres,
protoplanetary disks, and atomic/molecular spectra from the interstellar medium. He is a regular guest observer on the
Hubble Space Telescope, as well as other ground- and space-based observatories.[13] He has authored more than 110 papers in the peer-reviewed astrophysical literature.[14]
Personal life
Outside of work, Prof. France lives with his family outside of
Boulder, Colorado. His wife, Emily France, is a novelist and lawyer.[9]