Title: A 100pc view of the interplay between the ISM and stars in dense star-forming galaxies

Abstract:
How are stars formed throughout cosmic time? Are the same processes responsible for 
triggering starbursts at high redshift and the local universe? A wealth of information is available 
for star-forming galaxies at 2 < z < 3, but current technical limitations prevent us from resolving 
those objects much beyond kpc scales. To ameliorate the problem, we have used a wide range 
of instruments to observe a sample of low-z galaxies (z~0.2) with similar ISM conditions to L* 
star-forming galaxies at z~2 (i.e. high densities, high star formation rates and low metallicities) 
for which we can achieve a physical resolution scale between 100 and 200 pc. More 
specifically, I will discuss how the combined results from Keck IFU observations of the 
kinematics of the ionized gas, adaptive-optics observations of the stellar mass distribution in the 
near-IR and the proposed observations of the molecular gas reservoir with ALMA can help us 
understand the physical processes responsible for converting gas into stars in giant star-forming 
clumps typically found in such galaxies.