Benjamin (Benik) Jegischewitsch Markarjan (born 29 November 1913 in Shahumyan, Armenia; died 29 September 1985) was an Armenian astrophysicist. Markarian's Chain (of galaxies) was named after him when he discovered that this string of galaxies moves with a common motion, in the mid 1970s. He is also the namesake of a catalog of compact, optically bright galaxies (including both starbursts and AGN) known as Markarian galaxies.