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7. CONCLUSION

Recent progress in understanding starbursts and placing them in the context of galaxy evolution has been outstanding and is healthily accelerating. We are fortunate to be riding a tidal wave of marvelous new data highlighted by unprecedented large sample sky surveys, HST high resolution imaging, sensitive new infrared and sub-mm instrumentation, and the inauguration of the Spitzer and GALEX observatories.

To close, let me mention some critical aspects of starburst physics that deserve special attention. How does feedback operate in young starbursts to regulate processes like saturation, quenching, and outflows? In particular regarding the latter, the largest effects of starbursts are related to galactic superwinds, but there are numerous uncertainties regarding their underlying physics. Nearby systems are the benchmarks for detailed scrutiny of superwinds. A crucial open question is the mechanism of starburst triggers: for a given trigger, there is apparently a large variation in the resulting star-formation amplitude, which remains poorly understood as yet. A final important problem concerns the drivers and time-scales for dust shroud dissipation, which transforms an IR-bright galaxy into a UV/optical-bright one. All these areas will benefit from a combined observational/theoretical attack.


All the conference participants wanted to extend their genuine gratitude to the organizing committees for a very productive and enjoyable conference, but most couldn't do so because of page limits. This work has been supported in part by HST grants GO-09117 and GO-09455.

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