Assembly, Gas Content and
Star Formation History of Galaxies

The Fourth North American ALMA Science Center Conference

September 21 – 24, 2009
Omni Hotel, Charlottesville, Virginia.


Thanks to all the participants for a successful conference.
Meeting photos and talks are now available.

In the last two decades, the availability of large ground-based and space-based facilities, and improved theoretical modeling, have led to significant advances in our understanding of star formation, the gas cycle in galaxies, and galaxy assembly and evolution over cosmic time. With the next generation of long-wavelength ground- and space-based facilities set to become fully operational in the first half of the coming decade, the time is ripe to review the theoretical and observational progress that has been made in the areas of extragalactic star formation, interstellar gas properties and galaxy assembly, and to assess where science with facilities such as ALMA, EVLA, Herschel Space Telescope, and the JWST are likely to contribute transformational understanding in these areas.

This meeting is the fourth in a series of meetings organized by the North American ALMA Science Center and sponsored by NRAO/AUI/NSF with support from the University of Virginia Department of Astronomy.

Keys issues to be addressed are:
  • Gas content, scaling relations, and diagnostics of the star formation rate at low and high redshift
  • Advances in the theory and modeling of galaxy assembly and star formation on small and large scales
  • The role of feedback from stellar winds, SNe and AGN in regulating star formation
  • The role of accretion and mergers in driving galactic evolution
A major goal of this meeting is to highlight the capabilities of ALMA, and its synergy with the EVLA, Herschel, JWST, etc., in driving transformational science in these key areas in the next decade.

More information is forthcoming. Download the conference poster and check back soon!

Confirmed Invited Speakers
  • Jonathan Tan (University of Flordia)
  • Mark Krumholz (UCSC)
  • Todd Thompson (Ohio State)
  • Kazushi Sakamoto (ASIAA)
  • Phil Hopkins (UCB)
  • Julio Navarro (UVic)
  • Alberto Bolatto (University of Maryland)
  • Alison Peck (ALMA)
  • Bruce Elmegreen (IBM)
  • Kristin Shapiro (UCB)
  • Nick Scoville (Caltech)
  • Dominik Riechers (Caltech)
Scientific Organizing Committee
  • Lee Armus (SSC, Caltech)
  • Andrew Blain (Caltech)
  • Daniela Calzetti (UMass)
  • Chris Carilli (NRAO)
  • Aaron Evans (NRAO/UVa) (chair)
  • Mike Fall (STScI)
  • Tim Heckman (JHU)
  • Shardha Jogee (UT Austin)
  • Brian Kent (NRAO)
  • Carol Lonsdale (NRAO)
  • Xavier Prochaska (UCSC)
  • David Sanders (IfA, Hawaii)
  • Hsien Shang (ASIAA)
  • Christine Wilson (McMaster University)
Local Organizing Committee
  • Laurie Clark (NRAO, chair)
  • Aaron Evans (NRAO/UVa)
  • John Hibbard (NRAO)
  • Brian Kent (NRAO)
  • Manuel Aravena (NRAO)
  • Robert O'Connell (UVa)