Charles Baldner received his undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, then received his PhD in astronomy from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. His dissertation employed space- and ground-based data to attempt to characterize small variations in internal solar structure and magnetic field associated with the solar activity cycle. In addition, he contributed to the pre-launch development of the helioseismic analysis pipeline for the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). After completing his degree he joined the Solar Physics Group at Stanford University, continuing his work with HMI and research on solar variability and systematic problems in helioseismic analysis. He is now a senior research scientist at Stanford University and manages the day-to-day operations of the HMI instrument.