2025-05-26 –, Main Conference Room
Starting as an amateur in my teen years, I became fascinated by the beauty and nature of the cosmos. During my career I've witnessed the amazing transformation of astronomy from a mostly visual-wavelength endeavor into the multi-spectral and multi-messenger discipline of today. After a short personal "history", I will review the "feedback ladder" of ever-more powerful mechanisms in the self-regulation of star formation and the "Galactic ecology" - the cycling of atoms through the phases of the interstellar medium (ISM), into stars, and back into the ISM. Feedback and N-body dynamics play important roles in establishing stellar masses, the Initial Mass Function (IMF), and the formation of star clusters. I will comment on current challenges and the importance of physics and astrophysics to our technology and economy.
