Michael PerrymanMichael Perryman had a thirty-year career with the European Space Agency (ESA), initially as the scientific leader of the Hipparcos astrometry mission, 1981–97, and also serving as project manager for its operational phase, 1989–93. With Lennart Lindgren, he was the co-originator of the Gaia astrometry mission, a project expected to make important contributions to exoplanet science in the coming years. He was ESA's project scientist for Gaia from its earliest concepts in 1995 until the Critical Design Review in 2008, establishing the payload concept, technical feasibility, operational and data analysis principles, and its organisational structure, and coordinating its scientific case. He was Professor of Astronomy at Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands between 1993 and 2009, and Bohdan Paczyński Visiting Professor at Princeton University, New Jersey in 2013. Read More Read Less