Book excerpt: The research program focused on the development and application of advanced coherent optical interactions in semiconductor and semiconductor heterostructures. The experimental results were extensive and resulted in considerable advancement of the field. Included in the data was the first observation of the coherent nonlinear optical response of a single quantum dot exciton. Based on this result, we proceeded to demonstrate the first coherent optical control of a single quantum dot exciton and the basic features of quantum wave function engineering in these systems. Our measurements also included the first demonstration of two-electron entanglement in these systems. With support with an ARO-DURIP program, we have succeeded in building the first low temperature near field optical scanning microscope based on probing the coherent nonlinear optical response. The data show evidence that we have been able to map the wave function of a localized exciton in a quantum dot.