Charles Lawrence works in relativistic astrophysics, the effort to understand the nature and history of the universe by analyzing the cosmic microwave background, extragalactic radio sources, strong gravitational lensing and other evidence of the primordial universe. He is thrilled to have participated in the field during a time when many long-puzzling questions about the universe have been answered. He currently leads U.S. participation in Planck, the third-generation space mission to measure the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background, which launched in May 2009. Lawrence went to MIT for graduate school after working as a physics teacher in the Baltimore public schools for seven years. He earned a Ph.D. in physics and headed to Caltech as a research fellow. He joined the Jet Propulsion Lab in 1993. He has received NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal twice, for his leadership on both the Spitzer and Planck projects.