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Linda French is an American astronomer and Emerita Professor of Physics at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Career
French earned her AB in Astronomy at Indiana University and her MS and PhD in Astronomy at Cornell University.

Vilas was a scientist at NASA Johnson Space Center from 1985 through 2005 where she worked on quantifying orbital debris from spacecraft in low Earth orbit, geosynchronous orbit, or geotransfer orbit. Her observations helped to prove the existence of Neptune's rings five years before they were confirmed by a 1989 Voyager mission. She designed the coronagraph used to produce the first-ever image of a circumstellar disk around another star (Beta Pictoris) in 1984. Since her MS degree, Vilas has worked on the planet Mercury, serving an editor for a 1989 collection of reviews published by the University of Arizona Press. Vilas has been a pioneer in the identification of hydrated minerals through use of an absorption band near 700 nm. This absorption has been incorporated into the most recent asteroid taxonomies, and is one of the key measurements likely to be used for prospecting by future asteroid mining companies.

While at JSC, she participated in the 1987-88 Antarctic Search for Meteorites field season in Antarctica, helping collect nearly 700 meteorites from the Beardmore/Walcott Neve and Allan Hills/Elephant Moraine icefields. She also served as the Program Scientist for the Discovery, Dawn, and NEAR data analysis programs at NASA Headquarters from 2001-2002, ensuring the integrity of the Discovery program selection process during a time of national duress following the chaos of the 9/11 attack. She returned to JSC as the Group Chief for Planetary Astronomy within the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Office from 2002-2005.

Vilas then became the director of the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory from 2005 to 2010, where she managed telescope and instrumentation operations, conducted short-term and long-term observatory planning, and supervised the scientific and technical staff. She joined the staff of the Planetary Science Institute in 2011. At PSI, she was Participating Scientist on NASA's MESSENGER mission to Mercury and the Atsa Suborbital Observatory Project Scientist. She is a Participating Scientist on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LAMP team, and on the Joint Science Team for the Japanese Hayabusa-2 mission to asteroid 162173 Ryugu. She currently serves as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation.

French has been active in the leadership of the astronomical science community, serving as Education Officer of the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society from 1993-1997, after which she served as DPS Executive Secretary (2003-2006) and member of the DPS Education Advisory Board (2008-2010). French was elected to the Committee of the Historical Astronomy Division (2012-2015). French was also o

Honors and Recognition
French was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.

French was named the Kemp Professor of the Year by Illinois Wesleyan University in 2016.

Herbert C. Pollack Award for Research in History of Astronomy, Dudley Observatory

Asteroid 3506 French is named for her.

Personal life
French is an accomplished mountain climber, and a member of the Appalachian Mountain Club 4000 Footer Club, honoring those who have climbed all 48 4000-ft. peaks.

French is married to Ron Emmons, a retired English teacher, theater director, and track coach. She has two daughters, and one step-daughter.