David W. Latham is a Senior Astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge. He has led efforts to build telescopes at the Whipple Observatory in Arizona and also the instruments to go on them. His interests have ranged from quasars and galaxy redshift surveys to studies of stellar and planetary companions to stars. Recently his research has focussed on the discovery and characterization of transiting exoplanets, both from the ground and from space.