Michael Perryman spent 2010 as a Distinguished Visitor at the University of Heidelberg and at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg. During an extensive career with the European Space Agency, he was the scientific leader of the Hipparcos space astrometry mission, a project which has provided a unique observational foundation for many aspects of exoplanet studies. He was Professor of Astronomy at Leiden University, The Netherlands, between 1993 and 2009. He chaired the influential European Space Agency-European Southern Observatory (ESA-ESO) working group on extra-solar planets in 2005, and has served on various national working groups and strategy panels for the future development of exoplanet research.