Near field cosmology in and around the Local Group

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How galaxies like our own Milky Way form and evolve is a major unanswered question in modern astronomy. Over the last decade, several distinct lines of enquiry in astronomy have converged to place significant focus on the study of the Milky Way and its nearest neighbours, targets that are unique in astronomy due to our ability to resolve the individual stars that light these galaxies up. On the observational side, we have discovered a huge number of new, very small, galaxies that surround the Milky Way and which have clearly been affected by being so close to a large galaxy like ours. On the theory side, it has become evident that our model of the evolution of the Universe - that works remarkably well when we look on the largest cosmic scales - struggles to explain the properties of these small galaxies. On technology fronts, new instruments are being developed that will allow us to dissect the properties of galaxies - large and small - at ever greater distances and with unprecedented accuracy by resolving each of their individual stars. My proposed research program is placed at the interface of these lines of enquiry, and will examine how the properties of these small galaxies change as we get further away from the Milky Way, to regions where these small systems have been able to evolve peacefully over their entire history. Is the difficulty that astronomers have in explaining what small galaxies look like a result of our model of galaxy formation being completely wrong, or is it because the galaxies we were looking at have been bashed about too much by the Milky Way to be good examples for us to compare the models to? In probing these questions, my research program will use some of the newest instruments available to not only answer these key science questions, but also to understand how to better develop the underlying technology to be best suited for this science.