14 September 2015 - 18 September 2015

Conference rationale

Our ability to interpret the spectral energy distribution (SED) of galaxies is key to understanding how the physical processes at play in galaxies govern their evolution. Over the past decades, numerous multi-wavelength surveys have been carried out, sampling the ultraviolet to sub-millimetre SED of galaxies from the Milky Way neighbourhood to very high redshifts. To connect this treasure trove to the formation and evolution of galaxies through cosmic times, we need to derive precisely and accurately key astrophysical properties of galaxies: stellar mass, metal content, star formation history, dust mass and temperature, star formation rate, dust obscuration, heating sources, etc. At the same time, major investments have been made to build physically motivated SED models of galaxies with the aim of measuring their physical properties as reliably as possible. The aim of this workshop is to bring observers and modellers together to present their respective approaches in building and interpreting the SED of galaxies. In particular, we will discuss:

• the observed SED and the properties of galaxies: their evolution across cosmic times from the Milky Way to the highest redshifts,
• the building blocks of SED modelling: stellar populations, interstellar dust, young embedded star clusters, AGN,
• retrieving galaxy properties at various scales and redshifts by modelling their SED: radiative transfer and energy balance approaches,
• bringing models and observations together: "observing" galaxies from numerical simulations and comparing with real observations.

Organising committee

Médéric Boquien (co-chair), Ilse De Looze (co-chair), Matthew Auger, Manda Banerji, Francesco Belfiore, Thomas de Boer, Ali Dariush, Paul Hewett, Bethan James, Nimisha Kumari, Paula Younger (Administrator)

Sponsors

We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Kavli Foundation and from a grant from the Templeton Foundation held by Prof. Martin Rees.