William Cochran is a Senior Research Scientist with McDonald Observatory of The University of Texas at Austin. He received a B.S. in physics from Duke University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Princeton University. In his early career, he conducted observations and modeling of the atmospheres of the outer planets. He then became interested in planets around other stars, and in the late 1980s he started one of the early radial-velocity planet search programs using the McDonald Observatory 2.7m Harlan J. Smith Telescope. This search program has grown tremendously, and now also uses the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory as appropriate. Cochran's role in the Kepler Mission is primarily as a member of the Followup Observing Group.