This three-year award supports collaborative research between Rosemary F. G. Wyse, Johns Hopkins University, and Gerard Gilmore, the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. The objectives are to help determine the characteristics, structure and chemical evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy. The study of galaxy formation is crucial to obtaining knowledge about the physics of the origin of structure in the Universe and to an understanding of our Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way remains the ideal galaxy for this study because of its proximity and the abundance of available, detailed data. These data are essential for the testing and development of theories on galaxy formation and for an understanding of the origins and different structure of other galaxies. The project involves the acquisition and analysis of a very large number of stellar spectra and the development of a theoretical model in collaboration with British astronomer Gerard Gilmore. It is a well-balanced collaboration enhanced by the complementary expertise of the investigators and their respective backgrounds in theory and observational astronomy.
