  Studies of molecular clouds and young stars near the sun have provided
invaluable insights into the process of star formation. Indeed, much of our
physical understanding of this topic has been derived from such studies.
Perhaps the two most fundamental problems confronting star formation research
today are: 1) determining the origin of stellar mass and 2) deciphering the
nature of the physical processes that control the star formation rate in
molecular gas. As I will briefly outline here, observations and studies of
local star forming regions are making particularly significant contributions
toward the solution of both these important problems.
