Nearby young clusters have distinct advantages for the study of star formation and stellar evolution issues. These issues include the origin of the initial mass function (IMF), binarity, the evolution of proto-planetary disks and the fundamental properties of pre-main sequence (PMS) stars. Such clusters provide for study a population of stars across a wide range of stellar masses at essentially uniform age, distance and metallicity, that are sufficiently bright owing to their youth and proximity for a multitude of precise astrophysical studies that would be difficult for older and/or more-distant cluster populations. In addition, young clusters usefully contribute to the study of cluster formation because their current physical state might a consequence of earlier, and possibly on-going, dynamical or evaporative processes. Our laboratory to study these issues is the Eta Chamaeleontis cluster which was discovered by Mamajek et al.(1999) with a deep ROSAT High-Resolution Imager observation.<br />