Thanks to deep near-IR imaging from Hubble/WFC3, VISTA, and Spitzer it is now possible to observationally identify and characterise galaxies well within the first billion years of the Universe's history over a wide range of luminosities and environments. In the radio and sub- millimeter too, new instrumentation is revolutionizing our understanding. ALMA has now begun to obtain observations of distant sources revealing the nature of the ISM in these nascent galaxies and throwing up challenges for galaxy formation modelling, and, in the near future, LOFAR and other large experiments are expected to yield the first direct observations of Cosmic Reionization. In coming years, both the James Webb Space Telescope and the upcoming class of Extremely Large Telescope, will provide unprecedented sensitivity in the infrared and the potential to make significant breakthroughs, while, looking further ahead, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will provide a still more dramatic leap forward at radio wavelengths.

In parallel to these advances, our knowledge of star formation in low metallicity, high intensity environments is being reshaped through the study of the local galaxy populations such as Lyman Break Analogues (LBAs) and potentially the recently identified population of Extreme Emission Line Sources (EELSs). The study of these populations, which have physical properties similar to the sources recently identified in the high-redshift Universe, already suggest interpretations for some distant observations, and could provide further insights which would be impossible from direct observations of early times.

This specialist discussion session will review the current status of both our theoretical and observational understanding of distant galaxies and their local analogues, and the role of these sources in the history of galaxy formation and the evolution of the Universe.

Invited Speakers: Richard Ellis (UCL/ESO), Rebecca Bowler (Oxford), James Geach (Herts), Bethan James (IoA), Renske Smit (Durham)

* Invited Speakers.