Dr. Terndrup will use this Presidential Young Investigator Award to support his research on the inner bulge, halo, and disk of our Galaxy. Stellar abundances and kinematics will be measured to determine the mass distribution of the inner Galaxy and to constrain models of the formation of our Galaxy. The structure and stellar population of the nuclear bulge of our Galaxy have been subjects of great interest in the last ten years. Many basic questions, however, are yet unanswered: How do the bulge and the disk of the Galaxy interact? Do the bulge and halo have a separate history, or can they be understood as different manifestations of the same old stellar population? What was the order of formation of the bulge, disk, and halo, and what were the large-scale processes that led to the current structure of the Milky Way? What is the relative importance of thermal versus rotational support in the bulge, and are there signs of bars or other bulk motions? Dr. Terndrup's research will address these questions with an extensive observational survey of the kinematics and abundances of stars in the Galactic bulge.
