Most of the stars we see in the Milky Way are balls of hot gas, but they are born of low-temperature gases and dust in dense molecular clouds. Upon their deaths, they return the products of their nuclear combustion to interstellar space, most of which takes the form of low temperature gas and dust. This returned gas and dust in turn forms part of the material of the molecular clouds that are responsible for the next generation of stars, and thus completes the circle of life for a star.

The molecular clouds that are so intwined with the births and deaths of stars are observable in the infrared and millimeter wavelengths. By observing them using high resolution spectrographs, we can reverse engineer their compositions via the emission and absorption lines that are present in their spectra, as well as the chemical processes that occur within them. This understanding of what goes on inside these molecular clouds yields clues on the processes that are in play in the early stages of stellar formation.

Members of our group are currently in Chile, using telescopes such as ALMA and VLTI to study these molecular clouds and dying stars that are expected to contribute to them. Their observations cover a number of molecular clouds, star-forming regions, late-type stars, and relevant astrochemical phenomena. The current focus of their studies is on the formation of low and medium mass stars in the solar neighborhood, and stellar wind mass loss during the late stages of stellar evolution.