François Rouiller was born in 1956 in the Vaud canton, in French-speaking Switzerland.  He is a pharmacist by profession with a keen interest in science fiction, working as an illustrator, critic and writer.

In 1988, he was one of the founder members of the Friends of the Maison d’Ailleurs, a support group for the Museum of Utopia, Science Fiction and Extraordinary Travel created by the encyclopaedist Pierre Versins in Yverdon-les-Bains. Until 2008, François Rouiller contributed greatly in the promotion of the institution, including being president of the Foundation in charge of the museum.

During this time Atalante published a collection of his illustrations  (Après-demains, cent vues imprenables sur le futur [After-tomorrows – A Hundred Stunning Views of the Future], 2002), as well as an essay on drugs and addiction in SF (Stups & fiction, drogues et toxicomanie dans la science-fiction [Narcotics & Fiction, Drugs and Addiction in Science fiction], 2002) and an unconventional dictionary of the genre (100 mots pour voyager en science-fiction [A Hundred Words for Travelling in Science Fiction], 2006) which was awarded the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2007, in the Essay Category. Short stories signed FR have appeared in each of the five French-Swiss SF anthologies published between 1983 and 2016 by different editors. In 2005, Stups & Fiction became a theme-based exhibition, taking place in the same year at the Science & Cité Festival in Lausanne and at the Utopiales in Nantes. In 2007, the illustrator took part in the collective event L’expo qui rend fou (The exhibition that drives you crazy) – H.P. Lovecraft and the Book of Reason, organised by Patrick Gyber, the director of the Maison d’Ailleurs at the time.

In that year, François Rouiller started to write Metaquine®, his first novel, which he completed in 2015. He still lives in Switzerland between the Lavaux vineyards and the Valais Alps.