Laurel Brown began her interest in astronomy at age 7, when she saved up for her first telescope. It didn't work. Her luck improved in college, where she used many working telescopes and successfully earned a degree in astrophysics from Colgate University. Laurel supplemented her academics with astronomy jobs all over the world: the National Solar Observatory in Arizona, NASA's Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, the Wellesley College Observatory in Massachusetts, and on the Kerkennah Islands of Tunisia. After college, Laurel ran away to Africa and Seattle to teach science and math to children of all ages. Grad school brought her to New York City, where she earned a PhD in the history of astronomy from Columbia University. Laurel can be reached at laurel.a.brown@gmail.com.