Dr. Rosemary Wyse at the Johns Hopkins University will use this award to continue her investigation of the present day kinematics and distribution of chemical elements of the stars of our Milky Way Galaxy. Over 2000 stellar spectra have been obtained with support from a prior NSF grant. Observations will continue, but the emphasis will shift to the analysis of the large data set. The study of galaxy formation is crucial to obtaining knowledge about the physics of the origin of structure in the Universe. An understanding of our Milky Way Galaxy, for which the most detailed data are available, is crucial for the development and testing of theories of galaxy formation and for the elucidation of the origins of different morphological types of galaxies. The Milky Way offers a unique opportunity for study since it is the only galaxy for which one can determine directly and in detail the true model- independent three-dimensional structure, kinematics and chemical distributions of the constituent stellar populations, by study of individual stars. Dr. Wyse's theoretical modeling of her new observational results will provide new insight into the structure and the course of the evolution of the Galaxy.
