Measuring Nearby Star Forming Regions with the VLBA: from the Distance
  to the Dynamics
  This thesis is part of a large ongoing effort to determine the distance and
structure of all star-forming regions within several hundred parsecs of the Sun
using radio-interferometric observations. The main goals of this thesis were:
(1) Find the mean distance to the two best-studied nearby regions of low-mass
star-formation (Taurus and Ophiuchus) with accuracies (a few percent or better)
one to two orders of magnitude better than the present values, (2) Explore the
structure and dynamics of these star-forming regions, and (3) Study the stars
themselves.
