Evolved stars of masses similar or slightly greater than that of the sun evolve through the so-called red giant region. They are cool, luminous stars, and they lose mass via strong stellar winds. The winds form circumstellar shells of gas and dust, known as planetary nebulae. The Principal Investigator proposes to study this kind of mass loss and the formation of planetary nebulae. Both observations and theory will be part of this work. The emphasis will be on the physics and chemistry of the mass loss process.
