Orbiting and landed missions to Mars have revolutionized our understanding of the history and evolution of the terrestrial planets in our Solar System, yet new observations indicate the potential release of biomarker gases and possible unaccounted sub-surface reservoirs of water on Mars. These measurements point to highly dynamic processes that are particularly challenging to detect with current orbiting assets due to restricted spectral resolution and the limited cadence and repeatability of the sampled regions.

Within the next decade, unique space and ground-based assets will become available opening unprecedented windows to explore the atmospheres of Mars and Venus. In particular, upcoming Extremely Large Telescopes will provide unprecedented high-resolution spectroscopy and high spatial resolutions, permitting the study of complex molecules and isotopic ratios at record sensitivities and resolutions.

In this talk, I will present the current frontiers in the exploration of terrestrial planets and how the synergies between future space and ground astronomical assets will transform our understanding of the composition, stability and evolution of the Martian atmosphere.

We present a new method to constrain the grain size in protoplanetary disks with polarization observations at millimeter wavelengths. If dust grains are grown to the size comparable to the wavelengths, the dust grains are expected to have a large scattering opacity, and thus the continuum emission is expected to be polarized due to self-scattering. We perform 3D radiative transfer calculations to estimate the polarization degree for the protoplanetary disks that have a lopsided surface density distribution observed with a face-on view. We find that the polarization degree is as high as 2.5% with a subarcsec spatial resolution if the grain size is comparable to the observed wavelength. This method opens a new window on grain-size constraint with ALMA.

Large-scale cosmological simulations (such as Illustris and EAGLE) successfully describe the formation of elliptical and spiral galaxies. A challenge for such simulations is, however, to produce "starburst galaxies", which have much larger star formation rates (SFRs) than normal "main sequence" galaxies. With high-resolution zoom simulations with AREPO I will show how the SFR-enhancement during a merger-induced starburst can be significantly increased when increasing the spatial resolution, and this can likely explain the paucity of starbursts in the Illustris simulation. Furthermore, I will present results from a study of bursty star formation cycles in galaxies from the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulations. An interesting consequence of these burst cycles is that they significantly increase the scatter in the "main sequence of star-forming galaxies" for galaxies with stellar masses smaller than ~10^9 solar masses.

Stars, in the course of their evolution (aging), lose most of their initial mass before they end up as planetary nebulae/white dwarfs (in case of low and intermediate mass) or supernova remnants/neutron stars (in case of high mass stars). Studying cold stellar ejecta is possible mainly in the infrared, a radiation that can be probed most efficiently from Space. In my talk I will review how ground-based facilities and recent Space missions have contributed to our knowledge of late stages of stellar evolution, concentrating on some aspects I was involved in: like so called double- or mixed-chemistry in stellar ejecta, the detection of very large molecules composed of 60 and more carbon atoms (fullerenes), and recognition of unusual yellow hypergiant.

The Big Bang nucleosynthesis  predicts about three times as much lithium than that remains today in the old main sequence stars. This is the so-called "cosmological lithium problem". In the past astronomers have speculated on what might be responsible for the lithium deficit. Ideas included as yet unknown aspects of particle physics, nuclear physics or even new models of cosmology. My model provides a new solution: the lithium was first destroyed and re-accumulated by these stars shortly after they were born.

In this talk, I will present our recent submm observation about lyman alpha blobs (LABs). Using the Herschel PACS and SPIRE data, SCUBA-2 data and ALMA, we study the LABs in J2143-4423 at z=2.38 and SSA22 at z=3.1. Two out of 4 LABs in J2143-4423 and 8 out of 23 LABs are found to be associated with submm sources with high SFRs, suggesting active SF may be the powering source for the extended lyman alpha emission in some LABs. Our preliminary ALMA results among four LABs in SSA22 show that multiple submm counterparts are associated with most of LABs, may suggesting the LABs are the site forming galaxy protoclusters in their early stage.

The object formed at the beginning of the star formation process, the first hydrostatic core (FHSC), has been predicted theoretically. Because of its short time scale, deeply embedded nature, and low luminosity, it is not easy to confirm the FHSC observationally. To date, only a handful sources are recognized as the candidates for FHSC. Two sources in the Barnard 1b (B1-b) core are bright in submm/mm wave ranges but dark in mid-IR even in the Spitzer MIPS 24 and 70 micron bands. The physical and chemical properties of these two sources have been studied with the single-dish and interferometer in the wave range from 7 mm to 0.85 mm. The very low dust temperatures of T_dust < 20 K, the low bolometric luminosities of 0.15--0.31 L_sun, the high D/H ratio of ~0.2, and low velocity molecular outflows imply that these two sources in the B1-b core are in an earlier evolutionary stage than most of the known class 0 protostars. Especially, the properties of the northern source, B1-bN, having an internal luminosity of < 0.01--0.03 L_sun, agree with those of the FHSC predicted by the numerical simulations.

Using the Herschel Space Observatory we have observed a representative sample of 87 powerful 3CR sources at redshift z<1. The far-infrared (FIR, 70-500 micron) photometry is combined with mid-infrared (MIR) photometry from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and catalogued data to analyse the complete spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of each object from optical to radio wavelength. To disentangle the contributions of different components, the SEDs are fitted with a set of templates to derive the luminosities of host galaxy starlight, dust torus emission powered by active galactic nuclei (AGN) and cool dust heated by newly formed stars. The level of emission from relativistic jets is also estimated, to determine the maximum thermal contribution of the measured FIR emission.

On the one hand the new data are in line with the orientation-based unification of high-excitation radio-loud AGN, in that the dust torus becomes optically thin longwards of 30 micron. On the other hand, the low excitation radio galaxies and the MIR weak sources are an MIR- and FIR-faint AGN population different from the MIR-bright high-excitation population; it remains an open question whether they are at a later evolutionary state or an intrinsically different population.

The derived luminosities for host and dust heated by star formation are converted to stellar masses and star formation rates (SFR). Compared to other galaxy populations at the same epoch, the host-normalized SFR of the bulk of the 3CR sources lies at a low level. Estimates of the dust mass yield a 1-100 times lower dust/stellar mass ratio than for the Milky Way, indicating that these 3CR hosts have very low levels of interstellar matter explaining the lack of star formation. Less than 10% of the 3CR sources show levels of star formation above those of the main sequence of star forming galaxies.

We use a spherical-symmetric ionospheric reference model plugged into a three-dimensional Particles-In-Cell electromagnetic code [IAPIC] to simulate the Earth magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. Our aim is to investigate the time-dependent content and dynamics of the 3D magnetosphere in response to thermal ions plasma supply from the ionosphere. Our newly developed 3D PIC model has a finer grid size (0.1-0.2 RE), a H+ to electron mass ratio of up to few hundred, includes Earth gravity and tilt of the dipole field. Most importantly, IAPIC has the capability to consider distinct species with different masses and charges and to follow them in time separately in the simulation box. We present our first results for the content and dynamics of the magnetosphere following H+ and O+ supply from the ionosphere in the conditions of northern IMF of the solar wind.

The evolution of binary stars may lead to stripping of red giant stars.  If this happens on the first giant branch, the remnant is either a helium white dwarf or an subluminous B (sdB) star. The companion may be a main sequence star or another white dwarf. In recent years this evolutionary mosaic has been completed by the discovery of helium-core objects of very low mass (<0.3 Msun), now termed extremely low mass white dwarfs on the one hand and the EL CVn stars on the other. We present results from quantitative spectral analyses of such objects and discuss their relation to the core helium burning siblings, the sdB stars.

I will present ALMA observations of some of the most luminous quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) known, investigating their far-infrared emission and discussing an extremely broad and luminous double-peaked [CII] line in a QSO at redshift z=4.6.  The parent sample was compiled from multi-wavelength sky survey data, with which we were able to identify the most luminous (unobscured) QSOs in the Universe.  Of over 100,000 broad-line quasars identified in the SDSS, just 90 have bolometric luminosities greater than 10^14 solar luminosities (as or more luminous than the most luminous obscured quasars currently known).  We are for the first time determining the far-infrared properties of these most extremely luminous QSOs, and can estimate their contribution to the global star formation rate.  Furthermore, the [CII] emission indicates a massive rotating disk around an extremely massive black hole that was already established at high redshift.

Understanding  the physical processes that drove the reionization of the
early Universe is one of the main outstanding issue of cosmology. The
common view identifies star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei
(AGN) as main drivers of cosmic reionization, but little is known about
their relative contributions to this process. Forthcoming facilities, such
as JWST and the E-ELT, will provide high-quality spectra of thousands of
high-redshift galaxies at rest-frame ultraviolet and optical wavelengths
out to the epoch of reionization.
To prepare for the exploitation of these revolutionary datasets, we have
computed a suite of models tailored to the interpretation of the spectral
signatures of the first ionizing sources in the early Universe, using
dedicated photoionization calculations.
In this talk, I will present new photo-ionisation models of nebular
emission from star-forming galaxies and AGN and I will show how these
model predictions can help us gain new insight into the physical
properties of high-redshift galaxies.
I will also describe the way in which new ultraviolet and standard optical
diagnostics can best help distinguish between spectral features associated
with active galactic nuclei, starbursts and shocks in primeval galaxies.
To conclude, I will describe how such models can be easily implemented in
galaxy spectral analysis tools.

The global star formation (SF) law — the relation between star-forming gas and SF rate (SFR) — is reexamined in a large sample of 181 local star-forming galaxies with infrared luminosities (SFR) spanning almost five orders of magnitude. The surface density of dense molecular gas (as traced by HCN) has the tightest and linear correlation with that of SFR. The ΣSFR is a steeper function of the total gas Σgas (molecular gas with atomic gas) than that of molecular gas ΣH2. We further show that the SFR and a variety of dense gas tracers (e.g., HCN, CS, their high-J and high-J CO) are all linearly correlated for both the Galactic dense cores in our Milky Way and star-forming galaxies near and far. This has immediate implications on the modes of SF in galaxies because the dense cores are the sites of the active SF, and thus the basic units in contributing to the SF. The SFR should depend linearly upon the mass of dense molecular gas (the SF law!). These ground-based observations of last decade and recent Herschel results highlight what the ALMA can deliver on the studies of "SF laws" across large redshift ranges and on most SF scales.

HBC 722 is a low-luminosity member of a small young cluster in the North America Nebula. It went into outburst in mid-2010, and following an initial brightening it is in a high phase since then. Spectroscopic arguments suggest that we witness an FU Orionis-type (FUor) outburst, and it is one of those extremely rare cases when the progenitor was a well known object. Even in the high state, HBC 722 is an order of magnitude less luminous than prototypical FUors, which seems to contradict to many current explanations of the FUor phenomenon. In this talk I review our work on the characterization of HBC 722 in its quiescent phase, as well as our optical/infrared monitoring programme of the last years. The data offer a unique opportunity to follow the outburst in detail, and understand the related structural and temperature changes in the inner disk.

Supermassive black hole binaries (SBHBs) are thought to be a natural, if not inevitable, phase in scenarios where most massive galaxies host central black holes and undergo frequent mergers as they evolve.  While there are convincing examples of kiloparsec-separation pairs, there is no robust evidence for the sub-parsec binaries that are expected to exist.  The detection of this population would contribute important evidence in favor of the prevailing galaxy evolution scenarios, and is also of interest in other fields including gravitational wave astronomy.  We have undertaken a systematic search for close SBHBs based on the hypothesis that the secondary black hole in the binary accretes at a much higher rate than the primary, and its emission lines are doppler shifted due to its orbital motion (analogous to a single-line spectroscopic binary).  Our sample of 88 candidates is therefore selected from z<0.7 SDSS quasars via substantial (>1000 km/s) shifts of their broad H-beta lines relative to their systemic redshifts.  I will present an update on our efforts to evaluate the credentials of the candidates, including new radial velocity measurements from the spectroscopic monitoring program and a comparison of the spectral variability of the binary candidates to the broader quasar population.

Dynamical processes responsible for the ejection of massive stars from their birth-sites as high-velocity runaway stars may be responsible for the most powerful protostellar outflows. The OMC1 outflow, located immediately behind the Orion Nebula, may have been triggered by the dynamic interaction of a non-hierarchical system of massive stars that formed a compact binary, ejected the binary (suspected to be radio source I) and the 15 Solar mass BN object, and released ~10^{^48} ergs of energy about 500 years ago. Explosive outflows similar to Orion may be associated with the ejection of runaway stars, produce IR-flares with luminosities between novae and supernovae, and have profound feedback impact on their parent molecular clouds.

I will present multi-conjugate adaptive optics imaging with the Gemini-South 8-meter telescope at 0.06" resolution images of the 2.12 micro-meter H2 and 1.64 micro-meter [FeII] emission from the shock-excited fingers and results from or ALMA Cycle 2 observations of CO and the continuum with 1" angular resolution. I will also discuss the first results of a Spitzer warm-mission program (SPIRITS) which is searching for IR-only transients, some of which may be similar to the Orion event, in ~200 nearby galaxies.

High redshift galaxy protoclusters are the precursors of today’s massive clusters; the sites of formation of the most massive galaxies in the present-day Universe. In this talk I will examine the formation history of massive galaxies within high redshift protoclusters. We have obtained a sample of 37 dense clusters and protoclusters at 1.3<z<3.2 from the Clusters Around Radio-Loud AGN (CARLA) survey. We use optical i′-band, and infrared 3.6 and 4.5micron images to statistically select sources within these protoclusters and measure their average observed i′ – [3.6] colours. We find the abundance of massive galaxies within these overdensities increases with decreasing redshift, suggesting these objects form an evolutionary sequence, with the lower redshift (proto)clusters having similar properties to the descendents of those at high redshift. We have found that high redshift protocluster galaxies have an observed i′ – [3.6] colour which diverges from predictions at z>2. Taking the full cluster population into account, I will show that the formation of stars within the majority of massive cluster galaxies occurs over at least 2 Gyr, and peaks at z~2-3. The average i′ – [3.6] colours also imply that the star formation in these massive galaxies must have been rapidly terminated to produce the observed red colours. Finally, I will show that massive galaxies at z>2 must have assembled within 0.5 Gyr of them forming a significant fraction of their stars. This means that the formation mechanism of massive galaxies in clusters is redshift dependent: at z>2, few massive galaxies formed via dry mergers, whereas at z<2 dry merging is a more important formation mechanism.

When comparing the gas content of galaxies with their current star
formation rate, it has been found that the gas consumption time scale is
much smaller than the age of galaxies. This discrepancy leads to the
conclusion that galaxies need to replenish their gas reservoirs to
sustain star formation.
In order to investigate this process of gas replenishment in more detail
we target galaxies that contain at least 2.5 times more atomic hydrogen
(HI) than expected from their optical properties using scaling
relations. For this set of galaxies, we are building a rich data set
consisting of deep HI interferometry (Australia Telescope Compact
Array), optical integral field spectroscopy (WiFeS spectrograph on the
SSO 2.3m telescope), deep imaging (DECam) and publicly available
photometry from GALEX (ultraviolet), WISE (infrared) and DSS-II
(optical). This data set will enable us to distinguish between multiple
scenarios that might lead to an excess in HI content, among them a phase
of elevated gas accretion, minor mergers or an inefficient conversion of
gas into stars. In a next step it allows us to investigate the
respective scenario in more detail.
In my talk I will first introduce the survey, then compare the HI excess
galaxies to the general galaxy population with respect to star formation
and stellar mass and finally present first results of the more detailed
analysis of the ATCA HI data combined with the optical IFU spectroscopy.

Small temperature and density fluctuations in the early Universe have grown into the cosmic web of dark matter and baryonic matter that we see today.  Matter is distributed among large-scale filaments, punctuated by galaxy clusters at the intersection points of this web.  Mapping the cosmic history of rich galaxy clusters provides fundamental information about both cosmology and galaxy evolution, motivating vigorous programs to search for large sample of clusters by several teams.

In this talk I will describe recent results from our surveys of clusters at 1.0 < z < 3. In particular, I will focus on the role of the environment in shaping the mass-size evolution of cluster galaxies and the evolution of galaxy stellar population properties.

After decades of effort the census of stars in the solar neighborhood (d<8 pc) is almost complete.
But now, new challenges  and new questions need to be addressed.
Complete the census within 25 pc from the Sun is one of them, as it would give a more robust and
statistically significant set of objects, including more massive stars and objects from different populations.
Although the stellar regime is close to be complete, the field brown dwarf density, and its multiplicity,  are still 
uncertain, as the discovery of hundreds of these objects in the last five years proves it. 
In this talk I will summarize  the improvements in the field of nearby stars 
and brown dwarfs, and our effort to discover new objects towards crowded areas using the VVV survey, 
and characterize ultra cool dwarfs in the solar neighborhood using VO tools, spectroscopy and astrometry. 

Balmer lines in emission are most prominent features in Mira stars spectra and have a strong potential as a proxy to study the lower atmosphere’s dynamics. During my thesis, I accumulated spectropolarimetric observations of Balmer lines in emissions. As the shock is propagating outwards, linear polarization increases and evolves. Assuming that linear polarization arises from anisotropic scattering, it tells us something about the geometric structure of the shock as it propagates. Such a line of study is typically one to be undertook by interferometry. In 2012, Amber data on the Mira stars omicron Ceti and R Horologii have been collected, in which the Brackett γ is studied.

In general, the polarimetric and interferometric approaches are thought to be very complementary for this kind of studies. Spectropolarimetric observations are more convenient to realize but for the models we have to deal with complex radiative transfer theory. On the other hand, interferometry is not as easy to perform but we can resort to simple models to fit visibilities and phase closures.

To study the dust obscured processes of star formation and black hole accretion at the peak of the SFR and BHAR functions (z=1-3) during galaxy evolution and establish their role, as well as their mutual  feedback processes, rest frame mid-to-far IR spectroscopy is needed. At these frequencies dust extinction is at its minimum and a variety of atomic and molecular transitions, tracing most astrophysical domains, occur. The future IR space telescope mission, SPICA, fully redesigned, will be able to perform such surveys in a synergic way with other missions at different frequencies (such as Athena).

Galaxy evolution is usually measured through probing scaling relations and distribution functions and determining if and how they evolve through cosmic time.   While this method is effective for the characterization of the bulk of the galaxy population it does not reveal how individual galaxies may have formed, nor does it allow us to trace directly the formation processes in galaxies.  Furthermore, because galaxies grow through mergers and star formation over time, selecting similar galaxies between epochs based on measurements of luminosity or even stellar or total mass is fraught with biases that makes any inferred evolution highly suspect.  One approach for understanding this problem is to use abundance matching, whereby galaxies are compared between different epochs based on their relative number densities.  If galaxies retain their rank ordering in some property, such as stellar mass or halo mass, then this would be an effective method for determining how different galaxy populations evolve through time.    In this talk I will discuss using simulation results to quantify how well we can utilise the abundance matching technique, and within what limits the assumptions of a stable rank ordering of galaxy masses remains valid up to z=3.  I will then discuss the application of this method using data from the GNS, UKIDSS UDS, and CANDELS surveys to show how we can effectively use abundance matching to determine how the processes of galaxy mergers, in-situ star formation and gas accretion from the intergalactic medium are driving the formation of galaxies at z < 3.

Star formation is a key physical process of baryonic matters,
and plays crucial roles in driving galaxy formation and evolution. The
observed relationship between star formation rates and gas masses, star
formation law, offers a powerful empirical way in understanding star
formation and is widely invoked in numerical simulations of galaxy
formation and evolution. In the past decade, the rich multi-wavelength
data of nearby galaxies have enabled well characterizations of this
gas-SFR relationship. I will talk about our recent works about star
formation law, and show that in addition to the gas density, other
factors may also regulate star formation such as existing stars,
metallicities etc. This challenges the traditional SFR-gas relationship,
implying that different physical mechanisms may play roles in driving
star formation during galaxy evolution.

Hydrogen is the building block of galaxies, critical for both star formation and galaxy evolution across billions of years. Until now, its distribution and properties in the distant Universe have remained largely unexplored due to the limitations of existing telescopes. The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder is an SKA-precursor radio interferometer located in the Boolardy desert of Western Australia, and has entered its science-commissioning stage as the Boolardy Engineering Testbed Array (BETA). Through our collaborations between the University of Sydney, the ARC Centre for All-Sky Astrophysics and CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, BETA is completing initial surveys for associated and intervening hydrogen absorption in galaxies up to a redshift of 1, with these samples being used to inform the science strategy of the upcoming FLASH, which will blindly survey 150,000 galaxies for their hydrogen content. I will present the work currently being carried out by the FLASH team and our future plans, as well as an overview of ASKAP and its capabilities.

In the present Universe, all stars born in cold clouds of molecular gas which inner and outer physical phenomena play a key role to set the star formation capabilities of the galaxies. The study of a molecular-dominated spiral galaxy as M51 (in particular through the PdBI Whirlpool Arcsecond Survey data) has underlined the importance of the ISM clump characterization to provide fundamental insight within the physics involved into the process of star formation. In the same way, however, it challenged the performance of the most advanced cloud identification method to date, indicating the need for new, more powerful tools.

Some of the limitations of commonly used algorithms can be overcome by considering the cloud segmentation problem in the broad framework of the graph theory.  Additionally, the clustering analysis provides a natural and robust mathematical description of the molecular ISM discrete features that might be viewed as “Molecular Gas Clusters”.

In particular, the algorithm we designed (SCIMES - Spectral Clustering for Molecular Emission Segmentation) applies the spectral clustering approach to look for relevant objects within topological graphs of emission (dendrograms) from star-forming clouds. SCIMES appears especially useful for the cloud identification within complex molecular emission data cubes since, in contrast to other algorithms, it does not over-divide structures, faithfully reproducing the work of the human eyes.

Moreover, SCIMES introduces a new philosophy in the identification of the molecular clouds, where virtually every property of the molecular emission might be used for the ISM segmentation. This may be helpful for distinguishing between the dominant physical mechanisms responsible for the formation of those molecular clusters.

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are characterised by strong variability at all wavelengths.
We exploited the VST monitoring observations of the COSMOS and CDFS regions, performed within the SUDARE/VOICE surveys, to assemble a sample of AGN candidates based on variability. Variability selection does not make strong a-priori assumptions about the properties of the sources and can thus integrate and complete samples selected by other techniques.
We investigate the effectiveness and reliability of this selection method by comparing it with spectroscopic, X-ray and IR selected AGN samples, in order to predict the performance that can be expected by future monitoring surveys such as LSST.

With the advent of large surveys such as the SDSS and 2dF it has become possible to study in detail quasar clustering in the universe. Although not equal in numbers to galaxy surveys, the fact that luminous quasars are observable over large cosmic epochs enables a direct probe of the dark matter distribution. In the hierarchical clustering scenario, more massive galaxies harbouring the most massive black holes (BHs) cluster more strongly than less massive galaxies. A picture that is suggested by observations in the local universe, where most massive BHs are hosted by the most massive galaxies. However, this is not what is observed in clustering studies, where a weak dependency on luminosity is observed and implies that host halo mass and quasar luminosity do not follow a tight correlation, and both luminous and faint quasars reside in a broad range of host masses. We investigate the clustering of radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) and radio-loud quasars (RLQs) drawn from a joint use of the SDSS and FIRST surveys as function of radio-loudness and BH virial mass.
In this talk, we will discuss our clustering measurements and whether the simple idea that massive BHs are highly clustered is tenable and the implications for our current view of quasar clustering.

A renaissance is taking place in optical and radio astronomy due to application of rapidly evolving commercial technology. Moreover, by all accounts (including Astro2010, The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey), this decade is regarded as the decade of time domain astronomy. The dynamic radio sky is seen as a frontier area in astrophysics, ripe for discovery. The synergy between optical and radio astronomy, such as the joint VLA-PTF collaboration, have proved to be fruitful. This includes the earliest radio observation of a Type Ia SN, systematic measurements of circumstellar matter close to the progenitor of core-collapse SNe, and a possible discovery of a new type of relativistic explosion. Furthermore, radio observatories are now taking the role of discovering transients independently. A new generation of radio facilities is being built at decameter and centimeter wavelengths and all of them have identified the exploration of the time domain as Key Science. These include, for example, the LOFAR Transient KSP, ASKAP VAST, MeerKAT ThunderKAT, and WSRT APERTIF. In my talk I will discuss what we have learned in recent years from observations of the dynamic radio sky and will briefly present the future of time-domain radio astronomy.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large (6.5 m), cold (<50 K), infrared optimized space observatory that will be launched in 2018, and is NASA's highest priority for science.  JWST has four instruments covering 0.6 to 28 micron, with scientific capabilities that include deep imaging, coronography, and powerful spectroscopy including multi-object, integral field, and exoplanet transit spectroscopic modes.  As the JWST Project Scientist with expertise in planetary science, I will highlight the scientific capabilities of this powerful new observatory to study our own solar system, and briefly highlight other key science goals that include solar systems in formation, to the first generation of galaxies that formed after the Big Bang. I will summarize technical progress and mission status, and discuss how scientists can propose scientific observations with JWST.

I will present the single-dish and interferometric dust and molecular line images towards a specific type of stellar cluster-forming molecular cloud, namely the hub-filament system. We found that the overall geometry of molecular gas filaments converging to clumpy rotating gas toroid is present in molecular clouds in extremely broad ranges of cloud-mass and luminosity. I will also briefly mention how ALMA will potentially lead to a breakthrough in this subject.

One of the key sites to search for new complex organic molecules in the
interstellar medium (ISM) has turned out to be the star-forming, hot,
molecular cloud core Sgr B2(N). I will present the first results of the
EMoCA survey conducted toward this source with ALMA in its Cycles 0 and 1.
This spectral line survey covers the 3 mm atmospheric window and aims at
deciphering the molecular content of Sgr B2(N) in order to test the
predictions of state-of-the-art astrochemical numerical simulations and to
gain insight into the chemical processes at work in the ISM. I will report
on the first detection of a branched alkyl molecule in the ISM. I will
discuss the implications of this detection in terms of interstellar
chemistry and its possible connection to the complex organic molecules
found in meteorites.