Dr. Laird Close is Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at The University of Arizona. Awarded a Canadian (study abroad) Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council scholarship while attending The University of British Columbia, he then earned his Ph.D. in Adaptive Optics from the renowned University of Arizona Astronomy Department where he now teaches. Professor Close has been highlighted as an outstanding professor and mentor by his university, and in 2004, he was honored with a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award, which is awarded to the top few percent of young science professors in America. He has also won major awards from the NSF's Major Research Instrumentation, Advanced Technologies, and Instrumentations program, and its Astronomy and Astrophysics program. Dr. Close has additionally won support from numerous NASA Origins of Solar Systems grants and is a member of NASA's astrobiology institute. While a researcher at the University of Hawaii, he discovered the first moon around an asteroid with a full orbit. Serving as Deputy Director for Adaptive Optics at the European Southern Observatory in 1998, he was the first instrument scientist for the most successful adaptive optics camera in the Southern Hemisphere. As a leader in brown dwarf and extrasolar planet high-contrast imaging astrophysics, he has invented and helped develop several cameras for the world's largest telescopes. Professor Close is the principal scientist of the 6.5m Magellan Adaptive Optics extrasolar planet imager, located in the high Atacama Desert of Chile.