Shane Larson is a research associate professor of physics at Northwestern University, where he is a member of CIERA (Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics). He is also an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium. He works in the field of gravitational wave astrophysics, specializing in studies of compact stars, binaries, and the galaxy. He works in gravitational wave astronomy with both the ground-based LIGO project, and future space-based detectors for NASA. Shane grew up in eastern Oregon, and was an undergraduate at Oregon State University where he received his B.S. in Physics in 1991. He received an M.S. in Physics (1994) and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics (1999) from Montana State University. Before moving to Northwestern, he was a postdoctoral scholar at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, then at the California Institute of Technology, and finally at the Center for Gravitational Wave Physics at the Pennsylvania State University. He was formerly a tenured associate professor of physics at Utah State University. Shane is also an avid amateur astronomer, observing with two homebuilt Dobsonian telescopes, named EQUINOX and COSMOS MARINER. He currently lives in the Chicago area with his wife, daughter and three cats. In addition to astronomy, he enjoys hiking, mountain biking, and geocaching. He also collects Legos, fountain pens, and telescopes. He contributes regularly to a public science blog at writescience.wordpress.com, and tweets with the handle @sciencejedi .