The Birth and Feedback of Massive Stars, Within and Beyond the Galaxy: The NAASC Science Workshop for 2008

The North American ALMA Science Center will host its third annual science workshop in Charlottesville from September 25–27, 2008. The subject of this year’s workshop is The Birth and Feedback of Massive Stars, Within and Beyond the Galaxy—a timely theme, given the ability of ALMA's frequency coverage, sensitivity, and resolution to bridge the gap between Galactic and low-redshift extragalactic studies of star formation and feedback. Key science questions for the workshop include:

• What molecular cloud properties influence massive star formation?
• What are the best observational discriminators between theories of massive star/cluster formation?
• How do forming massive stars affect their parent molecular clouds (e.g., turbulence, triggering)?
• How does massive star formation differ in the most extreme environments (e.g., Galactic center, super star clusters, starburst galaxies)?
• What physics determines star formation scaling relations in galaxies?

More details about the program and logistics can be found at the workshop website. The organizers encourage students, postdocs, and senior scientists working on relevant theoretical and (at all wavelengths) observational projects to preregister and submit abstracts before the deadline of May 1. A majority of the program will be selected from contributed abstracts, with a particular focus on the “wish list” of topics that have been prioritized by the organizers and listed on the website under “meeting philosophy”. We look forward to seeing you in Charlottesville this fall!

A. Baker and R. Indebetouw