Dr.Kennicutt is studying the evolutionary properties of nearby galaxies by determining star formation rates. This information is important for solving a wide range of broad problems, including star formation, the physical nature of the Hubble sequence, and the formation and evolution of galaxies. Specifically, Dr. Kennicutt is conducting (1) a detailed study of the relationship between the star formation rate and the density and dynamics of the interstellar gas, based on a new interferometric survey of the molecular gas in a sample of 44 nearby galaxies using the new BIMA facility (BIMA is the Berkeley, Illinois, Maryland Array) to look at a particular transition in carbon monoxide; (2) a high resolution study of the interstellar gas and star formation in the central kiloparsec regions of these galaxies; (3) a study of the radial evolution of star formation in galactic disks based on multicolor and Ha imaging of nearby spiral galaxies; (4) a study of the Ha luminosity function and the local cosmological start formation density; and (5) a calibration of the quantitative diagnostics of star formation rates and chemical abundances in galaxies. ***
